SQLite format 3@  O{tableTopicsTopicsCREATE TABLE 'Topics' (Title NVARCHAR(100), Notes TEXT) ,#00 contents{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 FIRE FROM HEAVEN\line by Seth Rees\par \b0\fs22 Chapter 1: Fire from Heaven (\cf1\ul Mat_3:11\cf0\ulnone )\line Chapter 2"  XDf0\ulnone )\line Chapter 3: God's Choice of Instruments (\cf1\ul 1Co_1:27-28\cf0\ulnone ) \line Chapter 4: Stephen's Fullness (\cf1\ul Act_6:5\cf0\ulnone )\line Chapter 5: The True Saint (\cf1\ul Isa_33:14-16\cf0\ulnone )\line Chapter 6: Rooted and Grounded (\cf1\ul Col_2:6-7\cf0\ulnone )\line Chapter 7: Abounding Grace (\cf1\ul Rom_5:20\cf0\ulnone )\line Chapter 8: The Secret of the Lord (\cf1\ul Psa_25:14\cf0\ulnone )\line Chapter 9: Exploits (\cf1\ul Dan_11:32\cf0\ulnone )\line Chapter 10: A Larger Outlook (\cf1\ul Isa_54:2\cf0\ulnone )\line Chapter 11: Abundant Resources (\cf1\ul 2Co_9:8\cf0\ulnone )\line Chapter 12: More than Conquerors (\cf1\ul Rom_8:37\cf0\ulnone )\line Chapter 13: This is That (\cf1\ul Act_2:16-18\cf0\ulnone )\line Chapter 14: The Holy Place (\cf1\ul Psa_24:3-4\cf0\ulnone )\line Chapter 15: Call of Rebekah (\cf1\ul Gen_24:34-36\cf0\ulnone )\line Chapter 16: Blessings in Disguise (\cf1\ul Psa_56:12\cf0\ulnone )\par reformatted for e-Sword by David Cox\cf2\lang3082\par \par } haff with unquenchable fire " (\cf1\ul Mat_3:11-12\cf0\ulnone ). \par Fire is a divinely chosen symbol of God's presence and glory. back in the Old Dispensation, before Israel was released from the iron grip of Pharaoh, God revealed Himself to Moses by the symbolic fire burning in an unconsumed bush -- a striking type of the glowing, purging presence of Almighty God. \par We see the type utilized again in the leading of Israel across the sandy stretches of the wilderness. However dark the night, however quiet the camp, the wakeful Israelite could quiet his nerves and allay his fears by simply going to his tent door and glancing out at the ever present pillar of fire. \par Fire was closely connected with the offerings. The paschal Lamb was roasted with fire. The sin offering was carried without the camp and burned with fire. Even the peace offering and meat offering had fire connected with them, God evidently designing to reiterate and re-enforce the significance of a mighty symbol by frequent presentation. In the offering of incense in the holy place the sweet spices, ground and mixed and placed in the golden censer, were burned in order that the sweet fragrance might ascend up before the Lord. \par There is abundant reason why fire should be selected by the divine typologist, for it is one of the most striking and powerful elements of the material world. It has always a strange, inexplicable mystery, and one never gets so wholly used to it that it ceases to be a frequent cause for wonder. Science has been baffled in attempting to explain the philosophy of the single flame, while the conflagration of the huge hotel or business block commands the respect and attention of men of all classes. Great crowds, with consternation and solemnity printed on their faces, watch at a safe distance the destruction of man's work by the dreaded enemy. \par Fire has always been an object of superstitious regard among the heathen nations. In ancient Greece and Rome the sacred fire was most carefully guarded. Persons were appointed to the office of keeping the flames burning. Consecrated priests and vestal virgins took extreme care not to allow the holy light to depart from the altar. If by any catastrophe the fire was extinguished, all national affairs were suspended until it was rekindled, either, as some believed, by the lightning from heaven or by the concentrated rays from the sun, or by the sparks from friction. The foreign ambassador had to walk near holy fire before he could be admitted into the state council. The bride must bow before holy fire as she entered her new home. Sachem, the red Indian chief, walked three times around his campfire before he ventured to give counsel or receive a public visitor. The Persian fire worshippers looked upon the sun and flames as peculiarly sacred, and it was considered an unpardonable profanity to spit in the fire or commit any indecency in its presence. The Parsees of India worship the fire with veneration today. \par Nothing in the physical universe is more valuable than fire. The sun, the center of our system is white hot, emitting flames, visible during eclipses, hundreds of miles long, and the appearance of sun spots is usually coetaneous with the unusual brilliance of the Aurora Borealis. Stored up in our vast coal mines and unearthed by the hand of industry, fire is the power that drives the wheels of commerce and propels the screws of navigation the world round. \par The quick combustion of explosives is the prime factor in all the implements of modern warfare. It is seen in the terrible effect of the bomb, the Mauser bullet, the death dealing cannon. \par Electricity, a form of fire, with its ever widening adaptation to nineteenth century life is revolutionizing all the methods of modern business and activity. There was a time when electricity was an object of mystery, uncertainty and dread. The lightnings of the sky were known to be real forces, but no one knew when or whom they would strike. None dared to attempt to control or utilize them. But Science has scaled the heavens since Franklin pulled the spark from the storm cloud with a kite and a tow string; and now a child can make use of this gigantic force with impunity. It is brought to the ends of our fingers and mingles in our everyday life without arousing curiosity and wonder. Electric fire rings our door bells, winds our clocks, grinds our coffee, lights, heats and propels our cars, carries our messages, plates our silver, and makes our pictures. \par There was a time when the Holy Ghost fire was an object of mystery, striking only occasionally, leaping to Mt. Carmel's peak or to a bush before an astounded Moses on the backside of a desert. Again it appeared as a lamp and smoking furnace, then as a destroying flame in Israel's camp. But since Christ is glorified and Pentecost is fully come, the Holy Ghost is willing, yea, desires to dwell among us, without respect to creed or caste, upon certain plainly revealed conditions. When these are me t fire will leap over the battlements of heaven, and not only illuminate and cleanse us but propel us along the highway of life. \par One of the most evident effects of the work of fire is purification. Many things can be purified by the application of water, especially if the impurity is merely external, but it takes the powerful heat of fire to thoroughly cleanse anything in which the baser part is mixed all through that which needs purification. All precious metals are fired and fired again until they are made fit for use. Thus the inspired writer uses a most vivid figure to illustrate the radical and cleansing work of the Holy Ghost in his Pentecostal capacity. Just as the smelter of precious metals subjects them to the intense heat of the furnace, so, says the Scriptures, does the Lord of Heaven subject the heart of the believer to the cleansing process of "the furnace of the Upper Room." \par "All is not gold that glitters " is a true adage applicable to many a disciple of Jesus. Not infrequ ently gold hunters are deceived by the shining of mica and iron pyrites, and there is much that sparkles and shines in the lives and characters of many professed Christians which is not the pure gold of perfect love for God and man. But the application of fire destroys the tin, and brass and reprobate silver. No doubt it is true that if all the alloy was destroyed from out of the hearts of some loud professors, there would be but little of anything left. The fire of the Spirit burns up all that is lightweight, chaffy, insubstantial. The desire for high reading disappears when a soul is subjected to the hot flames of Pentecost. One is then glad to read to the glory of God, and finds that his previous fondness for newspapers, etc., has gone from him forever. \par The tendency toward light conversation and frivolous demeanor also leaves the soul under the fiery baptism with the Holy Ghost. Oh, the twaddle of these times! The gossip, the nonsensical talk! Pentecost destroys all this. \par Anothe r thing that Pentecost invariably brings about is a liberal and generous spirit. The impulses and feeling of fraternity which prompted the early church to have all things in common is infused into the modern followers of Jesus when thus experience is received, so that one is glad to share his last penny with his brother in distress. This fire burns the mortgages off of our churches and liquidates our ecclesiastical indebtedness with dispatch. A sanctified man and a stingy man are never the same person. To be sanctified implies liberality and openness of spirit. \par There are whole districts where the moral atmosphere is laden with spiritual disease. Black, unhealthy bogs, gigantic swamp lands, infinite everglades, breathe a mist of fever, sickness and death. Whole churches are afflicted with "chills and fever," and not a few preachers are in the throes of typhus. What is the remedy? Fire from heaven! \par When a boy I frequently watched my father free the well of "damps." He would fill an i ron kettle with live, burning coals, and lower it into the well. Sometimes the impure gases would almost quench the fire, and the kettle had to be drawn up to the surface again for re-firing. But the fire always conquered at last. And there is no fever afflicted district, no spiritual bog, which the fire of the Spirit will not cleanse and make wholesome. \par Fire is a powerful element in quickening and giving life. Man labors hard, builds a conservatory, erects his furnace and heating apparatus, and with great expense and pains raises a few flowers. But God swings the frozen, barren old earth around to the sun and lets out the contract of thawing the ice and frost, causing millions of seeds to spring into life and converting the arid desert into a beautiful garden. If God can work such natural miracles what can He not also do in the spiritual world? He can make cold hearts melt and soften, causing them to blossom as the rose. Oh, the genial warmth and glow of the Spirit of God. He quickens dead spirits into life. He who brooded over the waste waters of the early world incubates dead souls into life today and brings them into a new existence. \par The Holy Ghost is the divine life giver. He takes the preacher's sermons and infuses life and energy into them until they are messages of glorious fire and power. He puts new light in thee ye of the church, a new flush in her cheek, a fresh strength in her system, so that with rapid pace she runs on the errands of God. \par Fire is a mighty energizing force. God has created tremendous natural forces. He has stored up in the lightnings, and coal mines and tides and currents of air power enough to run the industries of the world. The same God has provided infinite might and energy in the baptism with the Spirit. Here there is ample provision made for the complete and satisfactory accomplishment of all the work of God. What folly to undertake to do divine work with human strength! What manufacturer would attempt to run his factory with a treadmill? And yet thousands of Christians are trying to do the Lord's work with their own puny hands. Science turns on natural power by the touching of a button. Shall not the children of God learn how to apply the lightnings of the skies to the complete performance of the Master's will in the world? \par Archimedes defeated the enemy by burning the vessels in the harbor of Syracuse. With a burning glass, so the story goes, he focused the rays of the sun upon the ships and they went up inflames. All that we need is to bring the divine force to bear on the human need. Than we will seethe fleets of the enemy turned into smoke and ashes, while the plans of our Adversary are utterly brought to nought. \par When we have divine resources why should we depend upon human? We have a God to fight our battles, why should we fight them ourselves? It is a fact that all true work, work that amounts to anything, ceases when God is not the force in operation. Human activity and human effort do not count. After God withdraws the cause is a lost one. There is no need of our going on, even with greater noise and vehemence -- it is all to no purpose. \par Holy fire is the only protection against wild fire and fanaticism. Moses' rod turned into a serpent swallowed the serpents of Pharaoh's magicians. The churches are full of fanatics \endash people who are foolish and blindly afraid of spirituality and thorough piety. \par It is sometimes said by the ignorant and talkative that the preaching of holiness is conducive of fanaticism. On the contrary it is the greatest corrective of fanaticism. it is full "of love and a sound mind." The truly sanctified man is teachable, peaceable and easy to be entreated. \par Holy fire is the only insurance against hell fire. When I was traveling in the Indian Territory one autumn, I was told that the greatest protection a man could have on those plains was a match -- that when the prairie fires broke out, the only safety was to start a "backfire" and burn a space over on which to stand. A place already ignited by the flame could not be hurt by a second. The Pentecostal baptism burns up all that is combustible and chaffy, leaving the heart safe from a second attack. Brother, take your choice, it is holiness or hell, holy fire or hell fire. \par Just as the pillar of fire was light to Israel but darkness to the Egyptians, so the Holy Ghost is clear, white light to those who want the light but darkness to those who reject it. Two men may sit in the same pew and one be fed, helped and blessed by a sermon while the other scratches his head and says he 'does not understand it.' It is worse than Greek to him. The Spirit lights our pathway and confuses and perplexes our enemies. \par On what condition will this celestial fire fall upon us? In answering this question let us turn to the experience of Elijah on Mount Carmel. Here we will find the conditions enunciated in a clear and unmistakable manner. The prophet called for Israel insisting that the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of the grove should be present. The question as to the authority and divinity of the Lord Jehovah was to be settled. Elijah issued his challenge and prepared his offering. The God that answered by fire was to be conceded by all to be the true Deity. \par It was a whole sacrifice. The bullock was a whole bullock And unless we make an entire offering of ourselves to God there can be no answering by fire. Any degree of mental reservation will mar the integrity of the offering and retard the falling of the holy flame. Many claim that they have put all on the altar, and yet have received no answer. Usually in such cases something has been kept back from the altar. God has promised to send the fire upon a whole offering. Let God be true, though it makes every man a liar. Those who pay the price get the fire. One can have all the salvation one really wants, and it is safe to say that all over the world people have just as much of God and His grace as they really want. \par Elijah's offering was entirely separated from human dependencies. Especially care was taken to prevent any human intervention. No one must be allowed to say that by an ingenious combination of friction matches the sacrifice was ignited. The water of separation was poured on until everything was soaking wet; then all stepped back from the altar making it manifest that the appearance of fire was entirely extra human in its cause. And we must be all on the altar, free from human aid and help, entirely dependent upon God for the coming of the fire. \par The sacrifice was definitely presented to God. Elijah stepped back, lifted his eyes to heaven, and transferred the whole affair to God. We must be definite in our asking and petitioning. It is God we are dealing with. We want him to accept us and baptize us with the Holy Ghost. We are not now giving ourselves to "the church" nor "the work," but to God Himself. He is to own us, control us, use us or let us lie idle as best suits His wisdom. \par We must ask for ourselves personally. Use the pronouns "I" and "me," not "we" and "us." The latter are misty and foggy and indefinite, the former personal, particular, and prevailing in their effect. Bring your guns all to bear on Number One; do not scatter shot all over the country \par When the fire fell it not only consumed the sacrifice, but destroyed prejudice and skepticism among the people. When the deluge of fire was seen the congregation fell upon its face with the admission, "The Lord, he is God." It takes supernatural demonstration of God's power to wring from the people an admission like this. The hostile multitude is all about us, scoffing at the Elijahs and making sport of God's prophets and workers. Legislation, laws, creeds, culture, money, machinery, none of these things will ever convince the world. God answering by fire can alone accomplish this blessed result. \par We need fire to light our unlighted candles in pulpit and in pew. The fire of God in our universities and colleges would turn these centers of learning into centers of flaming revivals. Our schools would then, instead of spending so much time in stuffing heads and training heels, devote much attention to the melting and molding of hearts into Christlikeness. Instead of turning out moral cowards, blatant skeptics, and spider legged dudes and dandies, our institutions would give to the world at home and abroad a race of successful soul winners. \par The last point of which we wish to speak is the suddenness of the fall of fire. It just leaped like lightning and fell upon the consecrated offering. No one gets sanctified gradually. The Lord comes suddenly into His holy temple. While untold thousands stand and testify to having been sanctified, none profess to have grown into it or acquired it by degrees. In all cases the work is the work of a moment, for God is a great God and call do great things in an instant. Praise the Lord.\par \cf2\lang2058\par } cc#00 contents{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 FIRE FROM HEAVEN\line by Seth Rees\par \b0\fs22 Chapter 1: Fire from Heaven (\cf1\ul Mat_3:11\cf0\ulnone )\line Chapter 2: Established in Christ (\cf1\ul 2Co_1:21-22\c 9=E02 Established in Christ{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green301 Fire from Heaven{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 Fire from Heaven\par \b0\fs22 "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the c0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 Established in Christ\par \b0\fs22 "Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath so sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts " (\cf1\ul 2Co_1:21-22\cf0\ulnone ). \par We readily recognize several very prominent thoughts suggested in the text. First, ''in grace''; second, ''stablished"; third, ''sealed''; fourth, ''anointed"; fifth, "the earnest of the Spirit,'' and sixth, "fellowship." \par To be "in Christ'' is a profound privilege. Salvation in its initial stages is a magnificent thing. It is the largest blessing that has ever been launched into this world for the benefit of the race, and the hour when men become Christians is an hour they will celebrate forever. If one should have been converted so early in life that one does not remember the time, it will be remembered in the resurrection. Each of us will have a day and an hour to celebrate forever and ever. \par To be "in Christ" means very much more than is often supposed. It is not merely to be in Christ as we are in a house with the privilege of going out and coming in, or in a cave where we can run in and out at will. To be "in Christ" is to have an experience like the finger is in the hand; a vital union like that of the branch in the vine, vitally connected with Christ. There are a great many people who suppose that Christianity is something that you can put on for a day or an hour and throw it off, and pick it up and put it on and throw it off again, and that it is sort of like a loose garment to be worn when convenient; but, while it is possible for people to backslide and be finally lost, it means so much more to be in Christ than the average thinker supposes that I want to emphasize the fact tonight that to get into Christ is to be "planted" in the house of our God, and\rdblquote they that are planted in the house of our Lord flourish in the courts of our God." \par There is a great deal of difference, however, between being "planted" and "stuck in." Most of folks seem to have been stuck in. The fewest number seem to have roots. It is a rare thing that men are so planted by the hand of God Himself that they really flourish in the courts of the Lord\rquote s house. \par We are coming back more and more to the Book, and we are praying God that the people may come back to the Book. We have not made anything by drifting from it. We have gained nothing by our "creeds" and our "catechisms" and our man made "declarations of faith" and\rdblquote statements of doctrine." We have gained nothing by drifting from the Book to something manufactured by brains, and we will never "flourish" until we get back to our grandfather's Bible and get our great grandmother's religion and have old-fashioned Bible experiences like they had when they used to be "planted in the house of the Lord." May God give us some good clear cases of regeneration in these meetings. I have sometimes felt that I would like to be identified with some movement that would especially emphasize regeneration. We have preached holiness, and some of us have practiced holiness, and we have testified to holiness for years and years, but the doctrine of Bible regeneration is sadly neglected, and there are thousands of people who do not know the magnitude of this tremendous grace of regeneration, the new birth and justification. \par God has let some of us see in these last days that our only hope for the successful spread of true holiness is the emphasis of the truth in its initial stages. People must start well. People must be rooted and grounded and settled in Jesus Christ. Brother, if you have regeneration, you have something which hooks you up to the enginery of heaven and cables you to the Eternal until, if you should ever backslide, you will know you have lost something and will miss it. A good many people could 'backslide" and never miss anything. \par The next thought in our text is "stablished." The word "stablish" means the same as sanctify, namely, to eradicate or extract from the human heart everything movable, everything vacillating, everything uncertain, everything that wabbles, and leave only that which will stand the shocks of hell's artillery here and the awful tests of the Judgment hereafter. We want something to settle us -- to stablish us -- to fix us. It is in the text, and He will give it to us. When we get sanctified wholly we will lose all this wriggle and wabble and shiver and leaning and propping, and will get a framework in our souls capable of resisting all the combined forces of earth and hell pitted against us. We need this in these awful times, in these uncertain times, in these windy times; in these times when wicked men are waxing worse and worse and strong positive characters, filled with error, are planting themselves exactly across our track; we need something that the devil himself is not able to vanquish. \par The largest ships that float roll and tumble and quake and rock on the tempestuous sea, but right out there is an iceberg which is seen to resist every billow that dashes against it, unmoved and unshaken. Why? eight-ninths of an iceberg is under water. If an iceberg stands one hundred feet above the water it goes down eight hundred feet below the surface, and the great body of the iceberg is in the still, undisturbed, restful, quiet waters below where the storm never stirs things, and the surface agitation accomplishes nothing. If God's people could be eight-ninths root instead of eight-ninths top, it would take more than the storms of hell to shake them. \par The best gunboats that go to sea are principally under water. Those that are nearest to being entirely below the surface are the most efficient. What we want is not to get away up where the devil can have all power over us and at us, but to get down where we can load and fire, and be protected, be settled, be grounded, be fixed, so the breakers will simply break upon us and rollback into the sea perfectly powerless. \par God can settle us down. There are a great many people in these days who are so active in what they suppose to be the service of God that they do not seem to have time to "settle." They do not seem to have the time to take root and bury themselves below the surface, out of sight. The grandest saints that ever lived have always taken time to settle. I remember one saint who always prayed two hours a day, and if he had an extra heavy day's work he prayed four hours instead of two, but nowadays if we have an extra heavy day's work we sometimes forget to pray at all. We are so active and so busy, and there is so much to do, and so much fuss and hum that we have hardly time to get on our knees and wait for something to happen; but it would be good for us to stop and get on our knees and stay until something comes. \par I sometimes go to holiness meetings and hear them go through all the rounds, and I look around to see if anything takes place, but frequently nothing happens. Such as that is a fraud. As a matter of fact you can not get twenty people together who are sanctified wholly without something occurring. What we need today is not so much profession as it is possession, not so much "going on" (there are plenty of things "going on") as an experience that will settle us down to where something is obliged to occur, so that when we touch a button and turn on the power results are inevitably forthcoming. \par The next thing I notice in our text is that God seals us. That word seal means "to authenticate" or "to ratify" or "to testify to." For example, the government has a seal which it puts upon weights and measures, provided they are up to the standard. The government seals and stamps a great deal of its property so that it may be known as government property. Wherever you see the "U. S." you know that the thing bearing the initials belongs to Uncle Sam. The text says we are to be sealed. We are to have the government stamp of the skies put on us. God means to seal us so they will know in three worlds to whom we belong. \par Now, how can God put His seal on you when you do not know yourself to whom you belong? How could God authenticate or ratify a thing that is not true? How can God put His seal upon us until we are given to Him in such a way that we know we are absolutely and peculiarly and exclusively His property? He never can. You will go around without the government stamp on you until Jesus comes, unless you get to the place where you know absolutely that you belong to God. \par Again, God never seals people until they are tested. Every person must be tested just as abridge when built is tested before it is opened to the public. God tests His saints before He puts His stamp on them. Do you suppose He is going to put His seal on me until He knows that I am of merchantable quality? That is what it means. God's stamp means that we are of sound and solid quality, and that we can be turne!d loose on the public and proven to be just what we profess. \par Many of our severest tests come to us after we are consecrated. The greatest trials I have ever known came after I gave all to God. They often come very soon after we surrender all, and they come to prove that we are all right. As soon as it is proven absolutely that we are all right, God says: "You are all right, I am going to stamp you." May the Lord get some one ready to be stamped tonight. He has the stamping machine here, and He has been stamping some people here at this altar. I notice they have had some difficulty in getting ready to be stamped, and God is very careful about whom He stamps. I often see some people who profess as much as anyone else, and yet there is not that about their general bearing; there is not that somewhat which makes you think they have really been stamped. There is a difference after all. There are "holiness people" and then there are holy people, but the sad part of it is that people may be "holine"ss folks" without being holy folks. It takes folks who have the genuine thing to have the stamp of God put on them, and when they have the stamp it somehow or other becomes visible. It will tell in a man's testimony; it will tell in his everyday life. There is a sort of atmosphere that surrounds a man who is genuinely sanctified and stamped by God that every sinner sort of feels. God has fire to give us that will put people under conviction, and it will be perceived in our testimonies and in our songs and in our lives. People are not ready to do anything for God until they are tried and proven and stamped. You will not pass for much in the kingdom of grace until you are stamped. \par God is very careful not to stamp you until you are all right. The church will stamp you, pastors will stamp you. They will put buttons all over you; they will put a Christian Endeavor or Epworth League pin on you; they will put white ribbons on you and the W. C. T. U. outfit and all that sort of thing, when God ha#s not stamped you at all. There is a great difference between the human stamp and the Divine. Preachers are glad to get you into the church especially if you have a little money; but God puts His stamp only on folks that He knows to be solid gold, 24 carats fine. When God stamps a man the devil knows it, hell finds it out. There are a good many people who do not have enough religion to interest the devil. There are lots of people to whom he never pays much attention. But let a man get filled with the Holy Ghost and receive the stamp, and the devil will be after him hoofs and horns. \par May God give us enough religion to stir things. I would rather make folks mad than to have them go to sleep. It is an awful thing to think of people going to hell as they are, and I put the matter to myself sometimes, and say: "Seth Rees, do you believe there is a hell? Do you believe people are going there? Do you preach and act as if you did?" Most of us do not half believe that the people we come in contact $with day after day are going to hell. I frequently preach to men who stand on the border lines of eternity, who hear me preach the last time they ever hear any man preach. \par Only a week ago last Sunday morning I preached to an audience in the State of Pennsylvania, and a man who had had chance after chance to give himself to God and would not do it, sat just in front of me. While I was preaching, for some reason or other, he rose up and walked out the door. At the close of the service the pastor of the church was so impressed with the fact that the man would be dead before night, that he said to me: "I feel so surely that that man will be dead before night, that I would not be surprised when I go back to class meeting at 2:15 to hear that Geo. Pierce is dead." And when he went back that was just exactly what he did hear. That man walked out of that house and into eternal night, and I said to myself: "Do you know that you preached to a man the last time he ever heard anyone preach, and was t%here enough gospel in that sermon to save him?" \par I am feeling more and more in these days that I must not preach a single sermon out of which a perishing soul can not get enough truth to save him. If you were testifying, and it was the last time some man would ever hear a testimony, could he gather from what you say that he could have this salvation by repenting and believing? Supposing he hears you sing Sunday morning in the church, can he get enough out of the singing to tell him how to get saved? In some of our churches I fear he could not even understand what the soloist was singing. God help us as preachers and singers and workers! Hell is not more than two hundred yards away to many a soul, and many a time we can smell the brimstone. \par I say to you that it is time that holiness people were awake. The Spirit has impressed me that we are not aroused and stirred up as we ought to be about the fact that there is an eternal hell and that men are going to it in great companies. &How long is it since you had a wakeful night because people were going to hell? Tell me, how long is it since you have wept over the fact that people are going to be damned? You profess to be "sanctified"; very good, but God in heaven help us, if we have not enough salvation to stir every fiber of our beings for the salvation of souls. \par The next thing that I notice in the text is that we are "anointed." The priests and kings and prophets of Old Testament times were anointed with oil. Oil is the divinely selected symbol of the Holy Ghost. Just as the priests and prophets entered on their office work by the anointing with oil, God means that every one of His children shall be anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit; that not one shall enter upon the work of prophet, priest, or king, (all of which we are after we are fully sanctified), until he receives this anointing. One mistake of these times is that folks are going to work without anything to work with. They are going to war without any gun.' They are starting out to perform the Lord's work without having tarried in the upper chamber in Jerusalem until they were anointed. Those who have been anointed succeed and they accomplish what God wants them to. I notice that this is an anointing not only with the Holy Ghost and with fire provided by Jesus Christ, but it is an anointing with the Bible; God melts His truth and anoints us with the liquid. \par In a certain and very important sense this anointing is to be repeated. Not in the sense of repentance, not in the sense of baptism, but fresh anointings with the oil of the Spirit are needed again and again all through our spiritual experience. The trouble with people is that they lack oil. Oil is necessary in order that the machinery may run smoothly, without friction and without excess of wear and tear. God's people have to be frequently anointed with oil to keep them running smoothly. Lots of people get rusty and snappy; they get to screeching, and, soon, if they do not take care, there( is a "hot box." \par Oh, that God may anoint us tonight afresh; anoint our eyes and enable us to see the King in His beauty; anoint our ears that we may hear the words of Almighty God; anoint our fingers that they may know how to perform the work of God; anoint our feet that we may run swiftly on the errands of God. We need to be in a hurry, for God is in a hurry to save men. If we want to keep up we will have to be nimble and oiled, running smoothly. God give us the oil. \par Brother, I am afraid you are nearly dry. It does not do to run machinery dry. It will pay you to stop and oil up, even if you seem to get behind schedule time. Many a preacher would save time if he would stop and oil up. How easily this oil makes folks run. You can take a sword and cut a man's head off and have him smile while you do it. You can skin him alive and he will feel good about it. Many a man can not preach the truth without making men mad, and takes to himself great credit because of the fact, but when )you get the real ointment you can cut a man to pieces and apply the healing oil and cure him perfectly. \par If we had this oil we would not be peevish and hard to please. Such tempers do not correctly represent holiness anyhow. God save us from misrepresenting the Christ of God who suffered and died for us. May God give us an experience that is so oiled that we can run with perfect ease and without friction and without worry. More people die of worry than of work. \par Beloved, you will get this on your knees looking at none but God. Just try it. Let things goon without you a while. They will go on just the same when you are dead. Remain seeking until you feel the oil all through you. \par There is something so refreshing about people who get well oiled. How I love to hear a man preach who spends a good deal of time on his knees. I like good preaching. I am a splendid listener. Oh, how soul refreshing it is to hear a man preach who is fresh from his closet, who hurries from his* private devotions to his public ministry with something to pour out on his people. Why, the people never seem to get enough of such preaching, and you can preach to them an hour and twenty minutes, and they will shout, "O, go on, go on; don't stop now!" There is something about the genuine thing that is so soul inspiring and invigorating that you do not seem to get tired of it. You can hear a man preach the same thing over and over again, and every time you hear it, you say, "Bless God, it is better than before." It is like turkey, the more you warm it over the better it is. \par But I must call your attention to something else in this text. It says that we are "stablished with Him." That means fellowship, human and Divine. I am so glad the Lord did not set us all off to ourselves, "one in a hill." I am so glad the Lord fixed us up so we mutually help each other and are "stablished together." There are a great many people who have the mistaken idea that we are to be "fixed off to ourselves"; they+ will not fellowship with folks unless they see eye to eye with them. If I could not fellowship people unless they saw eye to eye with me I would have it "one in a hill" sure enough! You may differ from me about many things, but, sir, if you are filled with the Holy Ghost and I am filled with the Holy Ghost we are "stablished together," and we lose sight of these minor things and run together like drops of water and are one. \par I never saw some of you until within the last few days, and yet I feel as if I had known you for a long time and I shall love you forever. I may never meet you again, probably never will, but we are "stablished together." I want to impress this point: Christians are essential to each other. Not in the sense of leaning upon each other, but in a very important sense we are essential to each other\rquote s piety and progress. I need your prayers, I need your sympathy and I need your help, and you need mine. We need the prayers and help of all the saints and we must not get ,to a place where we\rdblquote do not need anything," for we are to be "stablished together." \par This fellowship makes a beautiful setting to things. Take the high church Episcopalian, and the blue stocking Presbyterian and the "broad brimmed" Quaker and the reformed Lutheran and fit them all in together; they make a beautiful mosaic. That is the reason I like union services. I like to have folks all mixed up until "you can not tell one from the other." \par When we get this blessing we are in inner, spiritual fellowship with God and the great bloodwashed throng, whether dead or alive. We are of kin to Abraham. When I meet him on the streets of the New Jerusalem I believe I will know him without an introduction. I believe we will know the prophets intuitively, and the men about whom we have read. They are our kin folks. They were "no good" for this world, because "the world was not worthy" of them, and so they jumped over the battlements of heaven and ran up the shining way, and we are -running after them, and we are going to meet them again. I belong to this holy brigade. It contains a few queer folks, but I am not going back on my people because there are a few cranks among them. They are my folks -- they are the bloodwashed. Some of them have only a thimbleful of brains, but they have sense enough to keep under the blood, and I have sense enough to stay with them. \par How many of us have been "planted," and "stablished," and "sealed," and "anointed," and are in fellowship with each other? If we have those five points, then we have the other. It is an\rdblquote earnest of the Spirit." What is an "earnest"? This is an expression taken from an old custom of giving a sample of the things sold from the seller to the purchaser. For instance, if real estate was sold, a basin of earth was given by the one selling the property to the buyer. \par The basin of earth was a testimony that the whole farm was the buyer's. When we get the\rdblquote earnest of the Spirit'' an.d are baptized with the Holy Ghost, we get only a basin full of what is to come, and if we get so happy over a basin full, what will we do when we have the whole thing? If we can scarcely stay in our boots with "the earnest," what are we going to do when all the delights and glory of the coming kingdom burst on our vision. The earnest of earth was a pledge that the whole farm was to follow. In the "earnest of the Spirit" God pledges that everything that He has is to follow. Certainly then there is nothing in the future to take the "dumps" about. We know that all that awaits us is something off of the same piece of cloth; and to be filled with the Spirit here, which is only an earnest of what is to come, is to be filled with the assurance from God Himself that we shall have everything He has in store, and that He will never stop until He sees that we have it. Glory to God! \par The earnest of the Spirit should quicken me because it is an evidence that I am to have the fullness of resurrection life. The "earnest of the Spirit" should comfort me now as a token that I am to have the fullness of joy and eternal consolation. The earnest of the Spirit should illuminate my heart because it is a promise that eternal day is going to break upon me and a time when the sun will never set. \par I want to testify to you in conclusion that I have received the earnest of the Spirit, and am receiving all that I can hold. The Lord sometimes blesses me almost to death, and I do not know but what He means to take me to heaven in that way sometime. I am as willing to go in that way as any. God does sometimes bless people until the vessel breaks and they fly away. Some people are afraid of getting blessed. Do not be afraid, you will not be hurt. Open your heart just now, and let Him come in. Let Him bless you now. Glory to His name! How many of us have received the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire since we were converted? preached at Cincinnati, Ohio December 2, 1898\par \cf2\lang2058\par } 0ion to these important truths set forth in our text, viz., that God, the great God, has chosen the foolish things to confound the wise. We have in the text a list of persons and things which God chooses for the battles of faith and triumphs of grace. \par It may be that you will be surprised tonight to find yourself left out of God's first choice, and yet you have an excellent opportunity to come in if you will. You have your choice -- you can be among the foolish things, or among the despised things, or among the weak things, or among the base things, or among the things that are not at all; for these five things cover all that is expressed here as God's choice of persons and things for the accomplishment of His greatest achievements. \par The first in the list is "the foolish things." God has chosen foolish things with which to confound the wise. The Corinthians must have been terribly chagrined and humiliated to find that if they were to serve God and be used of Him they must igno1re their culture. Corinth was a sort of modern Boston, and Paul tells them that God holds their culture in derision, and if they serve God they must give it up or at least ignore it and be among the foolish things. This was an awfully hard saying for the Corinthians, but God's Word is settled forever in heaven; when He makes a choice the best thing we can do is to say, "Amen." If God counts us in, it is not wise for us to count ourselves out. \par God chooses the foolish things. It must have seemed very foolish to the people of Jericho or the army of God, 600,000 men, to march around Jericho with no weapons but ram's horns! Think of it. What artillery! What cannonading can they do? To the military wiseacres this was worse than nonsense; but still the 600,000 men marched and did nothing but blow ram's horns until the time came to shout, and when they shouted the echo of their shout was answered by the roar and crash of the falling walls of the doomed city. The thing that seemed foolish proved th2e greatest triumph possible on that occasion. "Foolish things" hath God chosen. It must have seemed very foolish to smart men for Christ to tell twelve disciples to feed five thousand men and possibly fifteen thousand women and children with nothing in sight but five loaves and two fishes. They would have said at Harvard, or Brown, or Yale, or Oxford, that that was all nonsense, but it proved the victory that He intended. \par It seemed very foolish for Jesus in choosing disciples to ignore Jerusalem with the Sanhedrin and all its culture. How strange that He ignored Rome; Rome ruled the world, and was in the height of her splendor. The Son of God goes down to the shores of Galilee and gets twelve men, unlearned, hard of heart, with broad, brawny hands accustomed to handling the oar and tugging at nets. Not one of them were educated. What a foolish thing to put them at the head of a movement that was expected to evangelize the world! But, sir, when He had chosen them and fitted them with 3fire out of the skies, the wisdom of this world was not able to resist the power with which they spake. \par If you accomplish the things that God wants you to accomplish, you may have to ignore what little you may have above the collar button, and turn in with the foolish folks, for they are the people who thresh the mountains and beat them small as dust. They are the people that God uses to confound heady, high-minded, lofty folks. I see clearly some of you do not care to muster here. Well, you have another chance. \par The next choice that God makes is the choice of "the weak things." How easy it is for God to do things when He undertakes to do them. Pharaoh thought that his oppression of the people of God would result in the extermination of the nation, but the very edict he sent forth opened the door for the little Moses to slip into his own house and be treated as his own son, finally overthrowing his throne and scattering the Egyptian tyrant and his people upon the shores of the Red4 Sea. Thus was the wisdom of Egypt confounded. The time has come when we ought to stop long enough to remember that in the whole of history culture has often been associated with the darkest ages. Egypt was the center of learning when Moses lived, and he had received an education that was at the top of everything; he had been "through the schools," for we are told that he was "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." Yet God would not let him use his culture. Egypt knew the art of embalming and the science of medicine as they are not known today. There is no undertaker now who can embalm as old Pharaoh was embalmed. Look at him today in the British Museum. The Egyptians had culture and wisdom; they had the arts and sciences that seem to have been lost, and some people wonder if the lost arts are more numerous than the living arts; but their culture did not save them; their learning did not redeem them. \par Babylon was once the center of culture, but what did Babylon come to? The king sa5id, "Is this not Babylon that I have builded?" and that very night God's word came, and the king went out under a strange form of insanity and ate grass like an ox, and the sight of Nebuchadnezzar's grandeur can not be identified with certainty today. \par Greece was the center of learning at one time. Some think that the highest form of culture that this world has ever known was in Greece about the time that Paul stood at Athens when his soul was stirred within him and he denounced the whole thing, and preached to them just as he preached at Corinth, and just as I am preaching to you tonight. All our culture and refinement aside from salvation do not and can not help us. We are in bondage in these days, making a god of culture, making a god of the things of this world. God help us to keep things in their right order. \par No one will understand that I have any war with education or with learning. For these sixteen years I have been a student, and I am applying myself more closely than ev6er, but we do not want to let our heads get in the way of our hearts; we do not want anything to prevent us from sitting at the table of the Lord and eating a good square meal. We want to be so humble and childlike that God can use us as He wishes. \par "The weak things." What was weaker than Moses' rod? God sent Moses against the mightiest empire of the world. Egypt then ruled the world. When Moses was wanted for God's service he was found on the back side of a mountain feeding sheep. God found him with just a shepherd's stick, and said, "What is that thou hast in thy hand?" and he answered, "A rod," and God said, "Throw it on the ground," and when he had done so it became a serpent, and Moses was afraid of it, but God said, "Take it by the tail," and he trusted God and took it by the tail, and it became a rod again. He stretched that rod over Egypt ten times, and ten times the heavens parted and God sent judgment on that people. With that rod he smote the waters of the Red Sea and they parted. 7With that rod he struck the rock at Horeb, and a vast Mississippi River sprang forth, enough for three and a half million famished souls, with all the flocks and herds. God chose "the weak thing." What was weaker than David's sling? It was just such a sling as any boy could make. David slipped down to the brook and picked up five stones, and gained a victory for God that all the army of Israel had failed to gain. Many a time God takes a single man or boy or girl to win a victory that a whole army of folks can not win. God knows how to use weak things. He knew how to tumble a cake of barley meal down into the camp of the Midianites, and have it confuse them so that they fell to slaying themselves, and the victory was the Lord's. \par What could be weaker than "Gideon's three hundred," and what were their weapons? Nothing but lamps and pitchers, and the lamps would not shine until the pitchers were broken. The earthen pitcher represents the majority of Christians today who have never been sm8ashed to pieces by the power of the Holy Ghost. But when the pitchers were broken the light shone out, and three hundred men with nothing but light were enough to scatter the enemy and give victory. If General Grant had been going to fight a battle he would have wanted more men than that. The American forces called for something more than that in our recent struggle. But when God wants to fight a battle He delights in getting hold of the smallest thing He can find. \par I have a special friend who was saved from an awful life. He used to be a drunkard, and would lie on the streets night after night, and wake up in the morning with his long hair all frozen to the sidewalk; but God saved him, and he has had ten thousand converts for God. When he was saved and sanctified he could not spell a-b-c, but he trusted the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost taught him to read, and he read the fourteenth chapter of John without ever learning to read. I can furnish you good men with reliable Christian characters w9ho will testify to the truth of what I am saying. He read the fourteenth chapter of John in a miraculous way. He is a wonderful success in soul saving. I wish we had more like him. He can jump the highest and shout the loudest and get more souls for God than any one I know. God knows how to use the weak things, and I say, "Amen." It is very seldom God chooses a man with a "plug hat." He hardly knows what to do with folks that undertake to add a cubit to their stature, but He does know how to work with weak things. He knows what to do with a worm. Why? Because a worm has no backbone. He says He can thresh the mountains with a worm; but He can not with you, because you have swallowed a yardstick, and you go about erect and stiff and haughty with a will of your own, not having submitted yourself to the righteousness of God. God can not get a chance at you, but if you were willing to be weak, He could use you and would. \par The next in the roll of honor are the despised things. God has chosen: the despised things .And, by the way, men do not live very close to God very long without meeting a great deal of opposition and a great deal of persecution. A man who walks with God will feel many a time the hot breath of persecution upon his inner spirit as it comes from the regions of the damned. He will frequently feel the persecution if he is in this holy war for God. He will be persecuted by whole regiments of devils, and, as all the devils have once been angels, they know how to play the angel and deceive people. Many a preacher is deceived and is leading his people down to hell, because he is duped and blinded by Satan in angel's clothes. What we want is a salvation that is real, lets us know what we are, and gives us a persecution which will make us despised. When you get the genuine thing you will not have to seek persecution. \par Sometimes people seek persecution. I know a man in Boston who, I think, rather enjoyed going to jail. He was put in jail because he preached on the street. ;They offered to give him a license, but he would not take it, but continued preaching and going to jail. It is possible for a little bit of self to get in here, and seek persecution, but if you have the genuine thing you will not have to seek it; it will come without any attention on your part. Some people read that fourth chapter of Acts where it says, "They took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus," and think that when they get the genuine thing every one will like them, but they ought to read on further in that chapter and see what they were going to do with the disciples when they knew they had been with Jesus. You will find they wanted to kill them. This experience will make this world want to kill you. God save us from our nonsense, from our fallacy. God hath chosen the despised things. He uses things that are cast out. \par When Jesus heard that the man was cast out of the synagogue he took him in, and when we are rejected and despised and driven and scattered, then God comes aIt was when the Salvation Army had six hundred captains and officers in jail in nineteen countries that they had four times as much power with God and souls as they have tonight. It was when they sang and prayed and shouted in the streets when snow and slush and stones were thrown at them, and they were dragged off to jail; it was then that they had their power. \par I pray God He will raise up some folks nowadays who will arouse the animosity of the devil until there will be persecution worth talking about. God takes the "despised things," and when the devil is through with a man the Lord takes him up. \par There are people here who would like to be ''somebody.'' Well, you never will. You had better give that up now, for you are bad mud to begin with, and the only way you can be any good is to be saved and sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost. The angel of God met Joshua, when Joshua thought he was captain, and he said, "Who is this?" and the angel said, "I am captain of the? Lord's host," and Joshua said, "I thought I was captain," but he resigned and recognized the angel as captain. It is time we understood that the angel of the Lord is captain of the Lord's host, and that it is our place to resign, but we sort of hesitate about throwing in our lot with these "second rate" folks. God always takes the second rate folks. He does not know what to do with the "first rate" folks. \par The next in the roll of honor are the base things. God has chosen some of the vilest persons that ever walked this earth. There was St. Augustine. He was not only licentious, but his body was literally falling to pieces as a result of excesses, and God took him and saved him, and healed his body; and you read about him as the sainted Augustine. God gave him a half century of unparalleled usefulness, and then took him home, although he had been one of the vilest men whoever walked this earth. \par God chose Jerry MacAuley from Water Street to accomplish more for Him than all the wh@ite cravated preachers in the city. God went down to Water Street and picked him up. There were lots of people up town who were awaiting an appointment, but God never makes use of a person who is out of a job. If he wants some one to do something he always chooses the one who is hard at work. Jerry MacAuley had a job. There was nothing they wanted in hell that that man would not do, and God saw there was good stuff in him, and He took out the devils and put in angels. \par One of the basest souls who walked the streets in the Bowery district was that frail little Jessy DeVie, thirteen years in street life, at the age of twenty-six. Think of it. Yet God chose her and called her, and planted that wonderful shelter for fallen women in Mulberry Bend, that has been such a monument of divine grace in the last few years. God chooses "the base things." \par We have learned to sort of side in with everything that God chooses, for we want Him to choose us every time there is anything to be cAhosen. So we side in with people who are next to God. If we can not be with them in any other way we can pray for them, and it will pay us to do it. \par You have only one more chance, and some of you are not in yet. If you do not get in pretty soon you will not get to muster in with God's folks. He has chosen "the foolish things," and "the weak things," and "the despised things," and "the base things," and then his last choice is "the things that are not." Oh, you had better have come in sooner. God takes the things that are not to bring to naught the things that are. It is wonderful to be willing to be counted foolish and weak, and willing that folks say you are weak minded; it is wonderful to be willing to be despised, and rejected, and scattered, and kicked out of town; that is wonderful, it is blessed. It is a wonderful thing to be willing to be counted with the base folks, but it is more wonderful still to be willing to be seen among those who are "not at all." Paul was that kind. He sayBs "I, no not I, I made a mistake; it is not I, but Jesus Christ." He declared he was crucified with Christ, and that Christ was all and in all. \par We can have an experience where we have "sunk down" out of sight and the Son of God is come to the front; where we are nobody, with no reputation, nothing to pay, nothing to gain, nothing to lose. have lost everything in the fire, and we have gained everything. So we are not running any risk. We have no reputation except what the devil gives us, and we do not have to take care of that. Some folks run around taking care of their reputation. I remember a blacksmith whom the people advised to look up some things that had been said against him. They said his reputation would be ruined. He was hammering on the anvil at the time, and he said, "Well, I could soon hammer out another one." And so I am so full of preaching that if they take away my reputation I will preach out a new one, and if they take that away I will preach out another one, and I think Ceach one will bean improvement on the old one. \par When the New York Herald took me up and just spread me out among nearly a million people, folks said, "You ought to answer." I said "I have no time, I am preaching. What time have Ito fool with a little thing like the New York Herald?" When the Philadelphia papers blew me up so high, they said to me, "You ought to just make them smoke." I said, "The most of them smoke now; and that is not all. The smoke of their torment is going to ascend up forever and ever. They are going to have enough to suffer. I would not add anything to it. They are giving me a free advertisement; that is what they are doing." I believe I may say, without egotism, that in the last thirty days I have refused four calls to where I have accepted one. Yet, I see preachers sitting around looking for a job, and they even advertise in the holiness papers. God have mercy on us. I would not do that. Oh, beloved, do you know when you get to be nobody you never feel disturbed. I can say to you I never slept sweeter when a child than I did when pulpits and papers were against me. I held a ten days' camp meeting in my soul. \par Well, you will have to be willing to be nobody, to be nothing, or stay out. You hung around the edges when we were talking about "the foolish" and "the weak" and "the base" and "the despised." You did not like them, but this is your last chance. To be nobody means to get sanctified wholly, and let people kick you and roll you and tumble you and you not complain. \par Oh, for something that will awake folks and bring out the best there is in them for God. If you will come just now and let God send the sin killing baptism on your soul and put out all the pride and vanity and just melt you down at His feet, He will know just what to do with you and make use of you, and you will have a blessed time being one of "the things that are not." \par Preached at Cincinnati, O., December 7, 1898. \cf2\lang1033 \cf0 \par \cf2\lang2058\par } 22rI+03 God's Choice of Instruments{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 God's Choice of Instruments \b0 \par \fs22 "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are" \lang3082 (\lang1023 (\cf1\ul 1Co_1:27-28\cf0\ulnone ) \par Corinth was a city famous for wealth, culture, science, and arts, and infamous for vice. It abounded with philosophers and rhetoriticians. It was a great center of learning; and yet in this first chapter of the epistle which the Holy Ghost had sent to the church at Corinth, He gives express/F0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 Stephen's Fullness \b0 \par \fs22 "And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost "(\cf1\ul Act_6:5\cf0\ulnone ). \par This is our first introduction to Stephen. We know nothing of his birthplace or childhood, his genealogy or his education. We are not told his political, social, or financial standing. We do not know whether he came off Fifth Avenue or off the Bowery; out of the slums or from up town. We are at once introduced to his Christian experience. This makes me think that Christian experience is the most important thing that heaven sees in a man; and we are told at once that Stephen "was full of faith and of the Holy Ghost." So this must be the Divine standard for the measurement of man. Men have their standards; men measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with each other; but God has His standard, and when man stands up aloGngside of God's measuring line he finds himself too short. A little boy told his mother that he was six feet tall; and when she doubted his statement, he assured her that he had just measured himself by his own little feet. That is the way men measure themselves; that is the way men measure each other. They measure by their own rule. But God has a rule, and when we are measured by God's rule we are altogether too short. God has a way of making men measure up, and if you feel a shortage tonight in your Christian experience, I am delighted to be able to tell you that God has a plan by which your shortage may be supplied, and there may creep into your soul the consciousness that God has rounded you out and filled you up until you meet the Divine expectation. \par I notice that Stephen had a double allowance. He was twice full. Most people are not once full. But he was "full of faith and of the Holy Ghost;" and while I do not care to draw the line too closely between the fullness of faith and the fuHllness of the Spirit, yet there are a great many people who have doubtless at some time received the Holy Ghost who are not very full of faith. There are some here now who do not have the faith they should have. \par We will never have much more faith than we have, unless we stop talking doubt and unbelief; for if we talk doubt we will have doubt; if we talk unbelief it will grow on our hands; but if we will cultivate faith, if we will encourage faith, we will have plenty of it. Faith is not only the gift of God, but "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God," and we ought to have fullness of faith in Jesus Christ. We ought to be believing for larger things. We ought, with our faith, to look out beyond the most forbidding things that threaten us; for "all things are possible with God," and "to him that believeth." \par It is the people that are believing that get blessed, I do not care what the subject is. Take the subject of salvation, and the people who scratch their heaIds and doubt never get blessed. Take the question of sanctification, and the people who hang around the edges and say, "I do not believe this, and I do not believe that," never get very happy. You never see them filled with ecstasy and devotion. Take the question of divine healing, and the people who always say they do not believe, do not get much out of it. It is the folks who believe that get blessed. \par Beloved, you and I ought to let faith abound. We ought not to talk unbelief, or permit ourselves to mix up with any kind of doubt about anything which God has promised in His Word. \par I notice that Stephen was right in his "faith" intellectually, he was right in his faith experimentally, and he was right in his faith practically. Now, it is worth something to be right in your faith intellectually. I know that some people tell us that it does not make any difference what people believe if they are only sincere and honest. I grant that there are some people who tumble into sanctificaJtion without having their heads right; but if they stay right in their hearts, they will soon straighten up in their heads. It is worth something to have the truth in our heads. \par In these days of error, in these stormy times, I think it is important that you and I should be grounded in the truth, and should study our Bibles to know whether God has a salvation that is as big as our need, whether the remedy is as great as our disease. They are telling us everywhere that it is not. They are telling us everywhere that the best thing we can have is the power to control and subjugate sin; but if we can find out from our Bibles that we can be saved from all sin, we have got a good start. That is worth something. \par Yet there are people who are right in their heads on the question of holiness, especially Methodists and Quakers, who are not right in their hearts. But God has a plan by which we can be right in our hearts. Stephen found out God's plan, and found the blessing; and some of us hKave found out God's plan, and received the same blessing as Stephen, and we feel good about it. You can get God's plan and have the same experience as Stephen, and it will make you right in your heart. This is exceedingly important; for the heart is your home; it is the place you live. If people can live right in their kitchens, in their homes, and around their own firesides, they can generally behave themselves when they have company. \par And Stephen was right practically. He was a man of good report. He was a man who was right in his walk. What he had in his head had dropped down into his heart, and he practiced what he preached. God help us to do thus in these days when men can so easily break engagements, and for such a trifling thing fail to keep their word! I pray that God may make us practical in our faith! \par Stephen was full of the Holy Ghost. He did mighty works and miracles among the people. He had a power that gainsayers could not resist, which is something that is very mLuch needed nowadays. He not only had the power to perform miracles, but he had the power to stop the mouths of people and to spike the devil's guns. We need it in these days, and, thank God, He is bestowing it. Without our scarcely lifting a finger he is giving us power to create confusion in the devil's camp. All that we have to do is to go up and take the spoils. \par O beloved, when you get the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, it will not only straighten you out in your head, but it will straighten you out in your life. It will give you a power which will make you irresistible and invincible. And that is the thing which the preachers and deacons and ecclesiastics do not like; for they want folks that can be managed, and it is awfully embarrassing to "the powers that be" to find men that have a blessing that is unmanageable. \par The next thing I noticed about Stephen's blessing was, that in those days it did not debar him from official position in the church, but rather confirmedM him in his office. He was chosen because he was a man "full of faith and the Holy Ghost." Now, that leads me to think that, if the Church of today followed the Pentecostal Church in its selection of officers, she would choose Spirit-filled men; she would select men who were full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. But who does not know that in these days a man who is guilty of having Stephen's blessing is placed at a great discount by the ecclesiastical authorities and powers in our churches? Let me say to you that when a witness and advocate of full salvation is held in disrepute in the church, there is something radically wrong and there ought to be a reformation. Nowadays many a man who gets Stephen's blessing goes out of office rather than in. Many a woman has lost her position as President of the Ladies' Aid Society because she obtained Stephen's blessing. She could not dry the church dishes any longer, and she had to go. And many a man has been removed from the position of Superintendent of the Sunday.N school or teacher of the Bible class because he got Stephen's blessing; and many a poor preacher has had to take to the woods and Hardscrabble Circuit because he is guilty of having Stephen's blessing. These things make my heart sad. I smile when I think of the preacher, for I know it is good for him; but I am sad when I think of the folks, for it is awful for them. \par I want to tell you that when a church is in such a condition that she rejects salvation, it is no time for you to spend your time and money by undertaking to promote that condition of things. God bless you, you can thunder around at Bunker Hill if you want to; but the battle was over years ago. You can waste your ammunition on an empty battlefield if you want to; but I am going to the front. I am going to fight where God is, and where God is at work, and where the devil and the enemy are, and I am going to join hands with God. When you get Stephen's blessing you will lose sight of things that fill your vision today, and you wilOl see that the things eternal are the all-important things, and will seek the things that will beat par when the world is on fire. God in heaven give us something that will stand when everything else has fallen! \par The next thing I notice about Stephen's fullness is, that it gave him courage. He was filled, not only with the Holy Ghost, but with courage. To have encountered the jeers and assaults of the world and of worldly people would have been heroic; but to be attacked by the church, which should have stood by him, to be arrested by the people who should have been his friends, to be misunderstood and misrepresented, that was something awful; and yet Stephen stood out before allsorts of opposition. Look at him before the council! The Spirit of God comes upon him, and he arraigns the council before their own consciences, and charges home to judge and jury their awful crime. \par Such heroism as God gave Stephen is greatly in demand in these days; and when you get Stephen's blessinPg you will have courage to face folks and look them straight in the two eyes and tell them the whole truth. You will not feel like crossing the street to escape meeting any one. So far as your motives are concerned, you would be willing to have them written on the wall, that people might read them; for your heart is clean as heaven; and you are not afraid to face people. Nothing else but the second blessing will do it. Beloved, there is nothing else but the second blessing that will save the church; there is nothing else that will save the world; there is nothing else that will deliver us in this age of compromise; there is nothing else that will save us from this pleasure seeking, time serving, ease loving spirit which has fastened itself on people generally. There is nothing else that will kill the indifference and laziness that is getting into the churches; that will fill us with courage; that will make us go through with God! If we do not get it, we are gone. Another thing I notice about StepQhen's blessing is, that it gave him great wisdom -- not the wisdom of this world, but the wisdom that comes from God out of heaven. Now, wisdom, concisely defined, is "knowledge, with ability to apply it properly." That is what Stephen had, and that is what people generally want; but it is the rarest thing in all this country -- "knowledge, with the ability to apply it properly." In these days, men know a great deal. There heads are stuffed, but their hearts are starved. \par We do not know how to apply knowledge, and we have, therefore, a great deal of wasted energy. We have efforts that are worse than fruitless. We are making tremendous strides in activity and in energy nowadays; but the mill is not turning out much wheat. We have the noise, and the rattle, and the ceaseless hubbub in our churches; but when you go around to where the wheat ought to run out, there is nothing. God help us! What is the use in running a machine, if you can not get any wheat? What is the use of grinding, if you caRn not get the grist? What is the use of paying out your money, if you can not get returns? \par Now, I want to say something to you holiness people. You will not pay a doctor that does not help his patient, and you will not pay a lawyer that will not win his case, and it is nonsense to pay a preacher that does not get men saved and sanctified; and the time has come when God's people must be careful that they get returns for their outlay which will stand the fire of the judgment. \par The time has come when I can not invest my money in foreign missions (although I believe in foreign missions), when the missionaries have not had their Pentecost. I can not put my money along lines that do not bring me returns. I have got to have ten per cent. I must have more than that-- I must have a hundred per cent. You ought to pray about this matter of where you put your money. God bless you, you can get a soul for every dollar you invest. If you do not know the place, I can tell you where. A soul Sis going to be worth a great deal a little later on. When gold and silver will not be worth using for sidewalks, a soul will shine with rich luster. The time has come when we are forced to pay some attention to what will catch the fish, and less attention to the appearance of our outfit and things that do not catch fish. God bless you, I am in for a whole string of fish. I would rather get a tadpole, and sometimes a sucker, if I can get also a soul, than to return with an empty net. \par Stephen had a blessing that put conviction on people; he had a blessing that put the hook in men's jaws, and made that old Sanhedrin gnash their teeth and rage, while the same blessing kept him sweet meanwhile. It is one thing to stir the devil and it is another thing to have a blessing that will keep you sweet after he is stirred. I know some people who stir the devil, but he stirs them! \par This wisdom comes, not so much by way of Harvard and Yale, as it comes by waiting on God; not so much by study aTs by devotion. It comes to people who are little and unknown, and are willing to stay unknown. You do not get it by a great deal of research, but it is something that maybe revealed to a child. I have seen a child ten years old that had that which would outdo a whole regiment of bishops. I know men that have been taken from the slums and from the saloons, and been sanctified and made preachers, that I would rather have lead my work during my absence than a Doctor of Divinity or a Doctor of Laws, if he had not had his Pentecost. \par I like Stephen. I expect to tell him so when I see him. He did not live long, but he made a mark while he did live. I would rather preach myself to death in three months, and go to heaven as Stephen did, than to hang around for nine hundred and ninety years inactive and ineffective \endash I would indeed. I have told God if I can not be something more than an ordinary Christian, I do not want to be anything. I believe that God wants us to be something more than ordinUary Christians: to be filled with the divine; to be irresistible; to be irrepressible; to be so that the devil himself cannot do anything with us; to be so that we can fight our way through a whole regiment of imps, and get the victory anyway. Notice another thing the blessing did for Stephen. It put a shine on his face. Look at him before the council! His face looked like that of all angel. God did it. God knows how to shine his folks for a state occasion. I believe that God put a shine on Stephen's face for this occasion. You have known people who at first seemed homely and unlovely, but when you got acquainted with their lives, and saw how they followed the example of Jesus Christ in their walk, they got to looking really beautiful. It was not only heaven shining down on Stephen, but it was truth shining out of his soul. \par It takes hard wood to polish well; and do you know that, in these days, God is going into the slums, and getting knots and making good people of them, and putting a shineV on them that is going to astonish angels and devils? We sit up in our cushioned pews and frescoed churches, and we are too good to go down and fish people out of the slums; and we draw up our garments when people who are a little beneath us come around, when, if we knew God as He really is, we would be thankful to help these people for God. If you have not been through the fire that burns out pride, that burns out strife and all love of self, you are short of being a good Methodist, or a good Quaker, or a good New Testament Christian. \par I now come to the climax of Stephen's experience, and that is the blessing of love. The last thing I know about Stephen before he went up was, that he was praying for his enemies. In the midst of the shower of stones, with a shining face, with a loving heart, he cried to God for his enemies. That was a love that made him forget himself, that made him forget that bruise where that stone struck him on the shoulder and where that one hit him on the side of the Whead; that was a love that made him forget his own injuries and pray for the people who were casting stones at him. \par And if you are so fortunate as to get Stephen's blessing, it will make you like Stephen in that particular, so that when people are saying all manner of things against you, you can look up to heaven and say, "God bless them." And there is no sense in your talking about being sanctified unless you can do that. If there is some one you do not love, you have not got Stephen's blessing. If there is some one you do not care to speak to, you do not know anything about Stephen's fullness. If there are people who have lied about you, and you do not feel good toward them, you have not got Stephen's blessing. This world is crying out for people who have Stephen's blessing. You step on a geranium in your garden, and you never think of begging its pardon, and yet in return it showers you all over with a sweet perfume. O, for something that will make us return good for evil, so that when people step on us and bruise us, we will just shower them all over with a bath of heaven's fragrance! Stephen had this blessing, and we ought to have it, and when we get the baptism with the Holy Ghost and with fire we will have it; and instead of feeling sensitive and peevish, and as though every one was against us, we will just shower even one with blessings. \par It is no wonder to me that Jesus Christ rose to His feet to receive a man like Stephen into heaven. It is no wonder to me that He rose to welcome Stephen to the sky. If you will get Stephen's blessing, and live Stephen's life, and die Stephen's death, Jesus Christ will rise up to meet you. \par God did not make man to mock Him. God has not put the desire in your heart for Stephen's blessing, and at the same time refused to give it to you. God will do for you exactly what He has done for others; and if you will meet the requirements and conditions, He will do it now. Amen! \cf2\lang3082 \cf0 \par \cf2\lang2058\par } L~LW1 07 Abounding Grace{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 Abounding Grace \b0 \par \fs22 "Where sin abounded, grace did much mor906 Rooted and Grounded{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 Rooted and Grounded \b0 \par \fs22 As ye have therefore received Jesus Christ the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and bn@/a05 The True Saint{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 GeorgY.7504 Stephen's Fullness{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\redEZia;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 MS Sans Serif;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 The True Saint \b0 \par \fs22 "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil. He shall dwell on high; his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure " (\cf1\ul Isa_33:14-16\cf0\ulnone ). \par The Bible is not only a storybook, it is not only the greatest love story ever written, but it is a picture book. It is full of pictures. We have pictures of God and of heaven; pictures of the devil and of hell; of saints and of sinners; of this world and its destiny. We are fond of pi[ctures. Most of people are fond of their own pictures, especially if they flatter them; but there are some pictures in God's Word that we do not naturally like. \par There are few people who ever read the third chapter of Romans. I doubt if you ever saw a Bible that was soiled at the third chapter of Romans. It is a very rare thing for a preacher to take his text from that chapter. In that chapter we get our own photograph, and I presume that the reason we do not take to it is because it is so very much like us. The wrinkles and blemishes have not been removed. \par In the language which I have read to you out of God's Word, we have a picture of a saint. There are a great many people who do not like this picture because the contrast is so great, that it puts them under condemnation. But we had better have the truth now than to have it later on. You and I are going to come in contact with the truth somewhere; we are going to face things as they really are; and I would rather face the trut\h now than to face it when the death rattle is in my throat. I do not want to wait until this world is on fire to know my real self and my real need and God's real remedy; I want to know them now. I call your attention to this photograph; for God made it, and it is a good one. The first thing that I notice about this saint is his walk, his way, his bearing, down here in this world. The text says that "he walketh righteously." This must relate primarily to his relation to this world, his intercourse with the world. "He walketh righteously;" that is to say, he is a man of his word; he can be depended upon; his word is as good as his bond; and when he says he will do a thing, he will do it. If he agrees to pay you a bill upon a certain date, he will pay you then or he will be there to explain why he can not do so. He not only pays one hundred cents to the dollar, but he gives sixteen ounces to the pound, and thirty-six inches to the yard; he will not stoop to commercial trickery; he is a straight, cle]an man in business, as well as in pleasure and in church work. He does not make crooked paths; "he walketh righteously;" he looks before him, and he goes straight ahead. Now, there are some parts of this sermon that you will be excused if you do not shout over; and yet I have asked God to bring me to a place where I can shout as much over righteousness as over anything else. \par If we are not righteous in our walk, there is not very much virtue in our shouting anyway. There would be no great loss if you should stop your shouting until you can shout over righteousness; for people who do not pay their debts, and do not purpose to pay their debts, who run up a grocery bill until it is as big as they can get it, and then take their little cash and go off somewhere else to buy, turning their back on the grocery man who has trusted them for weeks, ought to stop shouting until they get saved so they can walk righteously. \par This man in the text would never think of riding on an electric car ^without paying, simply because the car was crowded, and the conductor overlooked him; he would never think of riding twice on a railroad ticket because the conductor failed to take it up the first time. This man would hunt the conductor up and give him his ticket. "he walketh righteously." There is a man like it. I believe God can make the man. \par The next thing I notice about this saint is his talk. "He speaketh uprightly." That is, he has stopped his lying; he tells the truth, and nothing but the truth, and always tells the truth, if he tells anything. If he is a preacher he does not lie, he does not say there were forty at the altar when there were hardly twenty. If he is a preacher, he does not write a lie, and say there are six or seven hundred attending a meeting when there are not more than two hundred and twenty-five; and if he is an editor he does not publish such lies. I do not know that he was an editor; I do not know what he was; but I have his photograph, and the Book says he "spe_aketh uprightly." \par God save us in this day from exaggeration and from lies! I am always glad to hear of a revival, and to hear of a great number being swept in; but I am not glad to hear a report of three or four hundred people converted when you can go over the spot in thirty days and not be able to find a baker's dozen of them. This man would not falsify. "he speaketh uprightly." Beloved, do you know that life is largely made up of words; and do you know that one of the Evangelists said that "he that offendeth not in word is a perfect man"; and do you know that it is exceedingly important that we shall have the right expression about the mouth? Do you know that it is exceeding important that we shall be saved from this sin which is not lacking in a "multitude of words"? \par This fellow would not gossip. I can not mention gossip but that people begin to think of women; but the biggest gossips I know of are men. This man did not talk things behind people's backs that he would not sa`y to their faces. No, he did not. You do, but he did not. You have said things behind folks' backs that you would not begin to say to their faces; but here is a man who is so fair and so strict and so honest that he "speaketh uprightly.'' There is a great deal of cheap talk these days. I want to say, that light talk, chaffy, frivolous talk, fireside and table tattle, is damaging spirituality in this country. God bless you, 'we had better be as silent as the old-fashioned Quakers than to indulge in the light, chaffy talk that is in vogue nowadays. I am disgusted, I am sick and tired of people's tongues wagging as if they were hung in the middle. If you will undertake to record the conversations of many a tea party and many asocial, you will find that they appear awful on paper. \par God save us from chaff, from chaffy talk; light, frivolous, senseless talk! Preachers sometimes indulge in it. With men marching into the infernal regions in regiments as they do in these days, preachers have noa time to joke and jest and guffaw, and sit around in groups, like some at camp meetings and at conferences, and tell little funny stories. I tell you the time has come when we should have more weeping prophets, preachers who weep instead of laugh; that talk uprightly instead of deal in the tattle and gossip of the day. You talk chaff because you are chaffy; or, if you are not, if you talk chaff a little while, you will become chaffy. You read chaff because you are chaffy; or, if you are not, if you read chaff a little while, you will become chaffy. There is a great deal of lightweight stuff nowadays. God help us! A man that "speaketh uprightly! " O, thank God for some one who tells the truth; some one whose words are solid, are heavy. \par Again, I notice that this man "stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood." He did not read murder tales. The text says it: I am preaching from the text. I did not make the Bible; I am not responsible for it; but God has given me the photograph of a man who "stoppbeth his ears from hearing of blood." He had evidently lost his appetite for war stories and murder trials and adultery cases; he stopped his ears, and would not hear them. \par Do you know that you can not let the newspapers of this country convert the center table in your drawing room into a cesspool, and pour out the vomit of hell as it is done through the newspapers, and keep your daughters and families clean? I do not care whether you shout at this or not. The fact is, we bring men into our families and set them down at our center tables in the form of a newspaper, when we would spurn the idea of our pure daughters being associated with them in any other way. The vilest men who walk the streets of our licentious city come into our homes and pour out their damnation into our families. You indulge in that sort of thing until your boys and girls have slipped through your fingers into the cesspool of iniquity, and then you come to me, as an evangelist, to pray them out! \par Here was a mcan who stopped his ears from hearing of blood. He did not take to that sort of thing. Before I get through you will find he was going to use his ears for something else, and he was taking care of them. You can not afford to soil your ears with all the voices of this world if you are going to hear the voice of God. \par We are living in a time when there are a great many voices speaking. The voice of pleasure wants to fill my ears. The voice of money comes, the voice of place wants a hearing; the voice of this world makes its appeal. The voice of ecclesiasticism is calling after me. Popery and all that sort of thing, is asking me to hearken, and there are a thousand voices that I might listen to; but I have to stop my ears if I am to hear the voice of God. This man did. \par Another thing I notice about this man is, that he "shutteth his eyes from seeing of evil." He would not look on evil things, not so much because he was afraid he would fall, as because he did not want to be contaminatded. The vulgar troupes of this country can come into our city, and post bills with the most obscene pictures, and most of the preachers will not raise a voice in remonstrance; and your daughter can scarcely walk down the street without having her eyes invited to turn to some indelicate picture. \par But I have the picture of a man who shut his eyes to these things. I know a person who has shut his eyes many a time when he passed a saloon, not because he was in danger, but because he loathed such things. Beloved, if you go through this world staring at everything you can see, it will not be long before you can not see anything good. You look at the sun for five seconds, and you can see suns everywhere you look; and you stare around at sin in this country, and it will not be long before you can see nothing but sin. Shut your eyes to the seeing of evil, and fix them on the Son of God, and it will not be long before you can see Jesus everywhere you look. Another thing I notice about this man is, that ehe "shaketh his hands from the holding of bribes." He can not be bought. He has no price. He can never be bribed. He has convictions born of certainty, and has courage enough to stand by his convictions; and there are not men enough on earth or devils enough in hell to cause him to retract from his position. A great many people are bribed nowadays. Our courts are bribed, our legislature is bribed, our Congress is bribed. Our elections are controlled by bribery. \par Sin is running this country, and you are so weak that you will not raise a voice against it. But here was a man who could not be bought. Preachers are bribed in these days, pulpits are bought. There sits a wealthy man over there, who is interested in the wholesale liquor business, and he has got his money influence into that pulpit and preacher until that preacher has no subjects left him to preach from except "The Jews." Nine pulpits out of ten in this country are so bought and controlled that the man who stands in the pulpit on Sundfay morning to read his "little sermonette," does not dare to speak against the sins of the day; and you know it, and the preacher knows it, and God knows it, and the devil knows it, and everybody knows it. \par But here was a fellow they could not buy. They could not scare him off from preaching the truth by threatening to take away his bread and butter. I remember when they threatened me thus. I remember that I said, "I will preach the truth if I have to live on clam shells and potato skins." \par I will say to you that there are men in this country who are true and loyal to God, who do not have their price, who do not work for money, who can live without a backslidden church's bread and butter. Here was that kind of a fellow. He knew that God's ravens were not all dead. He knew that God owned the cattle on a thousands hills, and if he got into a close place some time, God could kill a beef and send him a hind quarter. \par "He shaketh his hands from the holding of bribes." He dgid not want a stronger impulse than for some one to threaten him. He did not want anything more than for some one to say that if he did not stop preaching the truth he would be "sent off." It only moved him to preach stronger than ever before. O the bondage of this country! Just to think of having a fellow sit in the congregation, and crack a whip over my head, and tell me what to preach and what not to preach or he would not support me! \par Here was a man who went straight. He always went straight. He walked straight, and he talked straight, and he preached straight, and he lived straight, and he would not mix up with anything that was even suspicious. He was a man who lived above suspicion. God help us in these days to walk so they will know in three worlds who we are, where we are, and where we belong! I want them to know! I want them to know in heaven, I want them to know in hell, I want them to know in Cincinnati, that I belong to the "sheepskin society of whom this world is not worthy." I ham delighted to live in tents, or holes, or any place, until they get my mansion ready. It is almost ready. I am only waiting for them to give it a few finishing touches. The next thing I want to notice about this man is his residence. If he walks righteously, and talks uprightly, and stops his ears against blood, and shuts his eyes against evil, and washes his hands from all uncleanness, I want to know where that sort of man lives. The Book tells me, " He shall dwell on high." O, thank God! He lives on the mountain top, with mountain scenery, and mountain air, and mountain sunshine. He is above the malaria and the river fog and the miasma of the lowlands. He is above the dust and the noise and the rattle of this sinful world. He lives up where the sky is clear and everything is serene. The thunder may mutter and the clouds may roll at his feet, but the sun always shines where he is. He is where the sun never sets, and where the flowers bloom forever, and where the saints never die. People tell me iyou can not live on the mountain top of Christian experience all the time; but here is a fellow who could, and I believe if he could, we can. "He shall dwell on high." If he ever came down into the valley at all, it was to bring up some other fellow; his home was up there. He may have come down sometimes to pull some one else out of the fire; but his dwelling was on the mountain top. O, glory to God for the mountain top of Christian experience! \par The next thing I notice about this remarkable man is, that though he is so high, he is perfectly safe. "He shall have for his defense the munitions of rocks." "They say"' that a high experience is dangerous: if you get up too high you fall. In the first place, they do not understand the paradox of the thing; for in Christian experience you can get so high you can not fail; that is, if you stay in the right place. We get up by going down, and a man is away up when he is flat on his face, and when he is flat on his face he can not fall; all he can do isj to roll over, and it is those people who are not on their faces that are in danger. In that position they are safe, because they have for their defense the munitions of rocks, "the Rock of Ages." He is not safe because he is a strong man, but he is safe because he is in a strong place. \par I was never weaker in my life than I am now, but I am in a strong place. I am in the embrace of One who hold the Universe in His power. I am kept by the power that swung the worlds into existence. While I was never more conscious of my weakness, I am also conscious that He has hooked me up to the engines of heaven, and I need fall only when the throne falls. I believe that it is possible for men to get to a place where it is easier to go the other way than to go back. I feel "a divine pull" drawing me the other way. I am inclined to think it is going to pull until it pulls me into the harbor. Oh, the security; not in ourselves, not at all; but in Jesus Christ the Son of God, who keeps us! "The conies are a fekeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks;" and if the conies do this, certainly we also can have for our defense the "munitions of rocks"; and this we have when we receive the second blessing. \par I notice next that "his bread shall be given him." Given him! He does not have to work for it. Oh, think what a relief! He works for the Lord, and the Lord gives him his bread, and is careful to butter it on both sides, too. Famine never reaches him; "he can not tell when heat comes. He lives up there so high above the confusion of Wall Street, that it makes no difference to him whether gold has gone up or down. All he needs is secured to him, thank God. \par "His water shall be sure." He drinks pure, sparkling mountain water. His well never goes dry. There are a great many people, you know, who have water in the wet season, who have "wet weather religion"; they have salvation in the winter time, when there is nothing else but revivals going on; they do not take much interest when thle summer's work is on. Their religion fails them then. Here was a man whose "water was sure." He lived in luxury three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter days every year. When we get to the place where we accept our rations from God, the high God uses people to give them to us, we accept them as from Him; and whether there is much or little of them, we are thankful for them. Never since God sanctified my soul have I ever left a meeting grumbling at what I got. I have not always had enough to pay for a ticket, but I have always had enough to thank God for. \par The devil is telling people all over the country that if they do right they will starve. I had a gentleman in my congregation get under conviction about selling tobacco in his store. The devil told him and some of the church folks told him that if he gave up tobacco he would starve; but he put tobacco out of his store, and he did just as well with out it, and God rewarded him. \par My wife and I were assisting at a Convention in mBoston, and a baker came to the altar and was sanctified wholly. He was in the habit of baking bread Saturday afternoon to sell Sunday morning; but when he was sanctified he went home and told his wife that he was not going to sell any more bread on Sunday. She said: "You are a fool." He replied: "I am going to walk with God;" and he got a placard and put it up, "No Bread Sold on Sunday." On Saturday he said to his wife: "I am going to bake just as much bread as I have been baking, and I expect God to sell it all out for me on Saturday;" and Saturday night at midnight he did not have a loaf left. He kept that up all the time, and God sold his bread for him. It is the devil's lie that people can not do business on Christian principles. They can, and they can walk with God, and do anything that is right to do at all. \par "He shall see the King in his beauty." You remember that he refused to look at some things back yonder. He shut his eyes a short time ago, and now he sees the King in his beauty. He stopped his ears then, and now he hears the voice of God. The King fills all the horizon of his vision, eclipsing all lesser lights. He looks out over the heads of the people of this world, and sees into the land that is very far off. \par What a saint this man was! Why was it? He was sanctified wholly. He had had his Pentecost. He had received the second blessing. When you get it, it will do everything for you that it did for him. It will fix your walk, it will regulate your conversation, it will stop your ears, it will anoint your eyes, it will cleanse your hands, it will secure to you your bread and water, and give you a residence where the devil can not get you. A life hid with Christ in God! Oh, it is wonderful! And you can have this hidden life! You can get away from the devil, and find a place of security. Do you not want this hidden life now? \cf2\lang3082 \cf0 \par \cf2\lang2058\f1\fs17\par } ouilt up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving"(\cf1\ul Col_2:6-7\cf0\ulnone ). \par Out of this passage the following will be used as text: "Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." I recognize four thoughts in this text: First. The Christian's secret, invisible, hidden life. Second. Stablished therein, as ye have been taught. Third. The Christian's manifest, visible, outward life. Fourth. Abounding therein with thanksgiving. \par The manifest life is dependent upon secret forces. Look at the oak, towering into the clouds, loaded with fruit and with foliage. You say, There is although everybody knows that the real life of that tree is out of sight. The real life of that tree is beneath the soil, down where the roots are taking hold of the rocks and springs below. What appears is dependent on something that is hidden. The Holy Ghost has recognized thips fact in Christian experience, and made note of it in our text, viz., the whole, manifest, outward Christian life is absolutely dependent upon the hidden life, the secret life, the correct life, hid with Christ in God. \par If we have only what appears, it is worthless. Our outward life may appear ever so well, but if it does not have roots, it is of no value. There is a great deal that we see in these days that is like the fruit on a Christmas tree -- tied with a cotton string. It never grew there, has no roots, is not supported by a secret, invisible life. God clearly teaches us in His Word that it is exceedingly important that we shall have the correct, inward, secret life. \par There are a great many people who are willing to grow tall, who are willing to grow broad; but very few submit to the conditions of growing deep. But it is not safe to grow tall unless you grow deep. It means destruction for us to spread a sail at sea unless we have ballast. The tendency of the age is to exqpand at the top, and most of people have gone to seed. My text begins with "Rooted." We have top enough, we have show enough, we have display enough. What we need is grounding and rooting. We need to take hold of the rocks and springs below, so we can stand the storms. \par If we returned to apostolic preaching, we would have apostolic conviction, followed by apostolic conversions. Our converts would be planted instead of "stuck in." They would be rooted in the house of God, rather than simply attached or joined to the church. It is one thing to add people to the church, and it is another thing to add them to the Lord. There are a great many people who have been added to the church, and their names are counted every year, who have never been added to the Lord. \par All that may appear well in outward life is only valuable when it is an index to the correct, inward life; and whatever we may appear to be, whatever we may profess in our lives, if it is not the legitimate product of a life trhat is hid with Christ in God, with roots that take hold of the Rock of Ages, it is valueless, and worse than nothing. If people get well rooted, they can stand a good deal to begin with. Young converts, that are made after the New Testament standard, can stand lots of persecution; they can stand quite a storm. And that is not all -- if they are properly rooted, storms help rather than hinder them; storms strengthen their fibers and make their leaves a richer green than before. \par I was once in the timber business in the West. I used to handle some very heavy timber, and I have interested myself in counting the growth of a tree, finding a tree sometimes that had stood fifty or a hundred years when Columbus discovered America -- through the cyclones of five hundred summers, and through the withering frosts and bleak north winds of five hundred winters. But that tree had a taproot that went away down to the water. That was a tree, the roots of which ran away down and took hold of the rocks and spsrings below, so that when the storm came, it only grasped the rocks a little more firmly. When I wanted a stick of wagon material, as I sometimes did, where did I go to find it? In ever went to the heart of the forest -- I never took a tree that had the sympathy and protection of every other tree. I went to the edge of the woods, or better still I selected a tree that had grown in the open field, where it had had to take care of itself. There I found the toughest stick that grew. And you would be surprised that that tree could stand at all, if you were to see it as I have seen it, sway and bow until the branches almost touched the ground, and then swing back to a perpendicular, and again lock in with the tempest and again sway and bow; but after the cyclone was over, it straightened back with a stronger fiber and a richer green than it had before the storm. \par I have watched a good man, properly rooted. I have seen the tempest strike him. I have seen him sway and bend, and I have heard ctritics say, "he will go down." I have seen people make ready to say, "I told you so." But he recovers, and again locks in with the tempest, and again bows and sways, and people say, "he's gone." But after the storm is over, that man straightens back to a perpendicular, with a stronger Christian fiber and a richer green and a sweeter faith than he ever had before. If you are properly rooted, storms will not hurt you -- they are good for you; and a storm of good, old-fashioned, healthy persecution would compel our people to find out where they are. Some of you would be able to locate yourselves geographically if you could have a good storm of wholesome persecution. \par Oh, for people that are rooted! In these days of swell heads; in these days when the schools are stuffing the head and starving the heart; in these days when a man is measured by his smartness; in these days when rhetoric and eloquence are called for, and when a man must have well rounded sentences, and gold and silver on his tongueu, or he can not get a hearing, -- what we need is a thorough, basal foundation in the things of God. \par Daniel took root. He submitted to the conditions, and grew downward, so that he could stand the storms of hell. He could resist the shocks of hell's artillery; he could stand, and not only resist the force of evil, but turn back the tides of iniquity, and God has always had a few such men. May He multiply the number! Beloved, if you get rooted, you will not "curl up" like a dry leaf every time some one points a finger at you, you will not wilt every time some one criticizes you; instead you will shout and sing a little louder than ever. The Lord God bring us to the place where trials will only do us good! \par The next thing I notice in the text is the establishing grace, "stablished therein." Now, Greek scholars tell me -- I am not a Greek scholar, the "language of Canaan" is the only language I ever mastered -- but Greek scholars tell me that word "stablish" means the same as "sanvctify." I do not know about that; but I will tell you what I do know: I know that "sanctify" means "stablish." Sanctification is the stablishing grace; it is the grace that settles people. It is a blessing that takes the wabble out of folks; it takes the quirk out of the heart; it takes the iniquity (which means inequality) out of people. \par To get established is to get a blessing that will answer your questions, so that you will not run around and ask questions of the evangelists. The Holy Ghost will answer your questions. He will tell you a whole lot of things that you are trying to get folks to tell you, and when He tells you anything you will somehow feel that it is true. \par We must be established. A ship at sea, turns out for the imbedded rock; and if you do not get established in Divine grace, when you meet stronger heads filled with error you will turn out for them. There is an experience that will give us the right of the way, and make all men and devils turn out for us. w \par When you get this blessing you will go straight ahead; you will keep in the middle of the King's highway. Though you may have to cut your way through a whole regiment of devils, you will go through. What is a regiment of devils anyway when you have God with you? O, I wish we knew that we had a God! I wish we knew that God is not dead. I wish we would throw away these vest pocket idols; these ecclesiastical gods to which we are bowing down. We ought to have a living God, we ought to have the only true God; we ought to know that He is just as much alive now as in the days of Christ or Paul. \par O, thank God, He is alive! They killed His Son, but the grave could not hold Him. He knocked the bottom out of the tomb; so that there is a south side, there is a warm side, there is a genial side to even death: and you people that are sitting around on the north side of religion, with your teeth chattering, you ought to move around in the sun. We must have something that will settle us. Unless wex have convictions born of certainty, unless we have unbounded confidence in the Captain of our salvation in these awful times, we will ingloriously surrender. Thank God, there is an experience where we can get new strength all the time, and never know defeat; when failure is beyond the range of possibility. Our young people need this blessing. A young lady missionary of more than ordinary intelligence and average piety was doing missionary work and distributing tracts among the poor, when she visited a Catholic family. Happening to meet a priest there one day, she said, "I am not here preaching my doctrine."' The priest smiled and said, "Tell me, pray, what might be your doctrine;" but she did not seem to know what her doctrines were; she had not been settled, and the consequence was, that in a few weeks the priest took her into the Catholic Church. I want to say to you that if our young people do not get stablished, they will be blown here and there, not knowing the truth. The devil, by the winds of doctyrine that are blowing in these days, will sweep them off the deck of the good ship Zion. \par We need to know more; we need to have a religion that we know something about, so that we can look the infidel straight in his two eyes, and tell him what we know. There is no good in mere dogmas; there is no good in learned treatises on religion; but to tell a skeptical man what you know, is to attack him with a weapon he does not know what to do with. He can meet your arguments; he has as much logic as you have; but he can not answer your experience. When you have got an experience that you know about, that shuts his month and spikes the enemy's guns. \par O, to know that God is with us every minute, and that success is sure! We never have to make any trial trips, never go anywhere to see if we can have a revival. For two and a half years I have never gone to any place unless I had a revival. "God is God, and there is none beside Him." We know we are on the Lord's side; and we have got the vicztory before we join the battle. \par The battle of Winchester, in our Civil War, was stoutly contested. The Union forces were composed of brave men, but after hours of hard fighting they gave way. Their general, who was not expecting a battle, was twenty miles away. The roar of cannon told him of the conflict, and he put spurs to his horse and soon came upon his retreating troops. Shouting to them to follow, he pushed on. The men rallied, and a decisive victory was won. He brought no reinforcements with him; the same men did the victorious fighting that fought before, but their confidence in their general turned their defeat into victory. When we have confidence in our General, when we know that our God is for us, we do not retreat, but cut our way through, no matter what comes. \par One man with God on his side is worth a thousand without Him. God bless you, one man who with sword in hand has thrown away his scabbard is worth a thousand cowards. And this blessing that we are talking abo{ut will make you a man of that kind. It will make you know that the Captain of our salvation is always present, and is always victorious. He has conquered in the wilderness; He has conquered in Gethsemane; He has conquered at Calvary, and He has gone up to the skies in spite of the protest of all the devils in hell, and He is to reign for ever and ever. Glory to God for a resurrected Christ, living with His own people today, and making victors of all who will let Him. \par When you get this blessing, you will feel like a conqueror, and "with a conqueror's tread you will push ahead." You will set your feet down so hard the demons in hell will feel the shock. You will have a salvation that will not only astonish angels and baffle devils, but the old archfiend himself will turn pale while you sweep on to glorious victory. He will sit down in the ashes of hell and do his best to contrive some new way to come at you. When you get this blessing, you can begin to talk about the Christian's outwar|d, visible life. People everywhere are trying to build up Christian character without roots, without a good start; but the outward life of a Christian is as easy as whistling, when you get the inward life all right. You can not get bad fruit off a good tree. People talk about building up Christian character as if Christianity was something you could build up as you build a house; but the Christian life I am talking about is built as the tree is built -- from within. Most of people are trying to get things together to make themselves a house, forgetting that they have the materials within themselves. God wants to plant us in the soil of heaven so we will grow, and produce a Christianity which is the product of a clean and holy life. It will be easy to serve God when you get an experience like that. \par There are people working and laboring in the Church who, when they fear the cause is not going to succeed, organize another society, supposing that that will bring success. What we need is the fir}e of God within the wheels to make them go. Fifty thousand of our best people assembled in Boston to hold a convention, and even the saloons put up placards, "Welcome, Christian Endeavorers." Fifty thousand of these people staid in Boston a week and never had a convert! Put fifty thousand fire-baptized Christians in Boston, and they would revolutionize it. We have gone too much to rules, and forms, and ceremonies. What we need is to get our faces toward God. \par It is an awful thing that we have drifted so far away that we can not get people under conviction. Oh, for a ministry that will "put a hook in people's jaws"! God bless you, I do not want to make you feel good; I would rather preach so that a lot of you people would feel so bad you could neither eat nor sleep, until you went into an upper room, locked the door, and staid until "Pentecost was fully come." Then you would have a life that is rooted. God give it to us all. \par Again, in my text I notice that there is not only the "~inward, hidden, secret life," and the "manifest outward life," but there is ''abounding therein with thanksgiving." There is a life that runs over. There is a life that overreaches and overtops everything else; it is "the abounding life.'" What does "abound" mean? It means to have all you want, and some to give away. It means to have a whole lot you do not know what to do with; that is what some of us have, and this is the reason we can not behave ourselves. The time was when I could stand in one place and preach for forty minutes, and not move or make a gesture; but I have gotten over that. This abounding life must have vent, and when you get it you will not be surprised at us; you will give us credit then for behaving admirably, when you feel the current of holy power in your own soul. \par Did you pass by that country school house about four o'clock in the afternoon, just as the teacher turned the scholars out? Did you see those boys going out of the door, throwing their hats in the air, and tumbling over each other, and shouting? What did that mean? It meant that they had this "abounding life" physically. They had been shut up for three hours, and they had more life than they wanted. \par God's people should be stall fed; they should be so well fed that when they are "turned out" they will act like stall fed calves. God, give us this life! You can have this life, and wear a shoulder shawl over your shoulders, and have a soap stone to your feet, and sit in the corner and nurse your hands; you can have people wait on you and feed you with a silver spoon, and have two pastors looking after you; many who have life are doing this. But it is one thing to have life, and another thing to have ''abundant life.'' \par O, this abounding life! It makes men of us instead of babies; it makes giants instead of pigmies; soldiers instead of cowards. And that is what God wants in these days -- soldiers of the cross -- men that are ready for a forced march through the wilderness; men who are willing to make a bridge of their dead bodies, over which their comrades may march to victory. What God wants in these days is men who will throttle the devil; who will enter his ranks, and capture his subjects, and bring them over into the ranks of God. God save us from this babyhood that is in the churches! \par I am a member of the Church in good and regular standing, and I am going to stay until they put me out. I am not talking against churches; but I am trying to get people out of babyhood, and away from their bottles, get them in a place where they can chew beefsteak, and stand for God. Look at that mother! She is on the sidewalk, with her darling babe in the carriage. It is a beautiful sight. A baby is a blessing to any home -- always a blessing. You look at the babe and smile. The babe smiles, and the mother smiles, and every one is happy. But if you come back ten years later, and if that babe is still in the carriage, nobody smiles; there is nothing to smile about. What has happened? The doctor says it is a case of "arrested development." What does God see when He looks down into His nursery? What does God see in our steeple houses and synagogues in these days? He sees a whole lot of ten, twenty, and fifty year old babies sitting around, having to be carried and waited upon. How it must grieve His heart; t here is nothing to smile about. \par We are talking about our weakness when we should be talking about God's strength. It is all awful thing that we are sitting around and nursing our hands, with a warm soapstone at our feet, and two or three people waiting on us, when we ought to be out taking care of someone else, blessing someone else. When we go into a family, and see a girl of sixteen just as much care to her mother as the ten-year-old, we know there is something wrong; and I want to say to you that when I go into a church, and see fourteen-year-old babies sitting around, who have to be handled with gloves lest they get offended and leave the church, there is something evidently wrong. Those fourteen-year-old babies ought to be able to take care of new converts. \par An Eastern merchant and a Western farmer were traveling West together. They were standing on the rear platform of the last car of the train, and, looking back over the track, the merchant said to the farmer: "Can you tell me why that track over there is so moist and so green, and this track over which we are traveling is so dusty and barren?" And the other said: "Our farmers in the West produce so much grain that the elevators will not hold it, and when the cars are loaded for Eastern markets, the men are not careful about overloading. As the cars go East over that track, they scatter the grain which sprouts in the roadbed; but the empty cars come back over this track, and so this track is dry and dusty." What was the matter with those cars? They had the "second blessing,\rdblquote they had the "abounding" fullness, and every time you shook them a little, they scattered the grain. You can be so saved that whenever any one touches you, you will run over. They can not any more than speak to you but you will say, "Hallelujah!" and scatter the grain. An empty car makes about as much noise as a full one, but it leaves things dry and dusty. I have had people come into my home and wonderfully bless it; and after they have gone I have felt as if an angel had been there. My children were blessed, my whole home was benefited by the presence of those saints. Then I have had other people come into my home; I was glad when they were gone. You can be a full car, making things green and fresh everywhere you go; or you can be an empty car, leaving everything dry and barren. God help us to have this overflow blessing! Paul had it. He knew what I am talking about. Paul, give us a bit of your experience. "Well, I went down to Damascus, and the Jews were in wait to kill me; and I went up to Antioch, and the chief men of the city cast me out of their coasts; and I went down to Lystra, and when they saw the miracles, they said I was a god, and I could scarce restrain them from worshipping me; but when I preached the truth, they took up stones and stoned me, until I was left for dead; and I went to Thessalonica, and I was assaulted, and sent away by night; and I went to Corinth, that center of learning, and there I was whipped in the judgment hall; and I went down to Ephesus, and there a whole city was thrown into confusion on my account. "Yet Paul says, "Thanks be to God, who always causes us to triumph." Why, Paul, do you mean that you were always victorious, even when they drove you out of the city? Yes, Paul could see victory in all these things. Paul was a man that suffered no defeat. He knew God, and he walked with God; and if he had to preach with irons on, he could do it with ease. \par God give us this run over blessing! You can have it this hour if you will. Shall we not seek it? Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation. \cf2\lang1033 \cf0 \par \cf2\lang2058\par } e abound" (\cf1\ul Rom_5:20\cf0\ulnone ). \par The primary truth set forth in this text is beautifully illustrated by a law of nature, which is a sort of a symbol of the glory of the redemption. When a boy, and passing through the woods, as I often did, I cut a deep wound in a living tree, and passed on. Returning that way some years later, I found the wound all healed over; not by uniting of the old fibers, but by a much stronger material. I found the new fibers interlaced and tangled into a sort of complex mass, which I was quite unable to untangle, and the tree was tougher and stronger at the place of the wound than anywhere else. \par I am told that a broken bone in healing becomes stronger than the natural bone, as if nature meant to fortify herself against a second attack. We see an illustration of this same truth in the formation of the pearl. A little grain of sand works into the sensitive side of the pearl oyster; instinct prompts the little creature, not to retaliation, for that would inflict a greater wound, but to throw about the intruding element a crystalline liquid, so that out of the wound comes beauty and victory, and the value of the little creature is enhanced a hundred fold by the very thing which threatened its destruction. \par The Holy Ghost had some such thought as this, relative to the plan of salvation, when He summed up His splendid antithesis between Adam and Christ, sin and salvation, the fall and the redemption; for He teaches us that out of the dreadful attack which hell has made on this world will come the victory which shall prove the triumph of the ages. Out of the awful catastrophe that threatened the eternal destruction of man, God has evolved a new creation transcendentally greater and more glorious than the old, and out of the ocean depths of sin He has brought the pearl of greatest price, the Church which is to shine with a heavenly luster, reflecting the image of His Son during all the roll of the centuries. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." The truth of my text is illustrated in the salvation and subsequent usefulness of the most abandoned and ruined sinners that ever walked this earth. God seems to choose the worst material for the accomplishment of some of His greatest achievements, and He has saved some of the vilest wretches that ever crawled through the cesspools of iniquity; He has not only saved them, but He has turned them back from the saloon and the brothel and the dance hall to preach the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. \par The Lord has always chosen some of the worst material for His most glorious triumphs. When He wanted a man to head the patriarchal period, He chose a man whose very name suggested that he was crooked, that he was snaky, that he was slimy; his name was "Supplanter." When He wanted a man to head the kingly period, He took a man who became not only a murderer, but an adulterer; but He saved him and sanctified him wholly, and made him mighty in behalf of his kingdom. \par God saved Manasseh after half a century of bloody crimes. When He wanted twelve men to found the New Testament Church, instead of going to the Sanhedrin or to Jerusalem or to Rome, He went down along the shores of Galilee among the fishermen's huts, and selected men with broad, brawny hands, undisciplined and unschooled, and He saved and sanctified them, and made them foundation stones upon which He has built the New Testament Church. You and I would have gone to Rome, for Rome ruled the world. Or we would, perhaps, have gone to Jerusalem; she was in the height of her glory and splendor. Ecclesiasticism of this age would have gone to the Sanhedrin; but the Son of God went to the shores of Galilee. I may not be able to explain why, but, if for no other reason, that the truth of our text may be illustrated that, where sin ran riot, where sin was without restraint, "where sin abounded, the grace of God did much more abound." No difference how hard the heart, no matter how strong the aggravation, nor how long the season of impenitence, God has a gospel that will break men's hearts, that will turn back the rising tides of iniquity, that will cancel your record, that will save you from the power as well as from the guilt of sin, and make you burning and shining light to His glory. He saved the wicked Bunyan; He saved the sinful Newton; He saved the polluted, drunken Jerry McAuley. Yes, and many a woman, whose name though not found on the tablets of fame, God has written on the palm of His hand, stands up out of the slums today as a shining light for God, and as the living illustration of the truth of my text. Glory to God! No difference how ruined and weak the life, no difference about the condition of the home, we have a gospel that will redeem them; we have a gospel that will restore them; we have a gospel that will reconstruct them. \par I entered into a home. A pale emaciated wife met me at the door. There was no carpet on the floor; there was no fire on the hearth; there was no bread on the table; there was not a whole piece of furniture in the house; there were old hats in the windows; the children were frightened at the footstep of their father; everything presented a picture of despair. But as we went in, the gospel entered, and conviction came down. It was followed by an old-fashioned conversion; and when the father was saved, the children got saved, the brokenhearted wife took courage, and the whole thing changed complexion. When we came back to that home a little later, there was carpet on the floor; there was fire on the hearth; there was bread on the table; there was color in the wife's cheeks; the old hats had disappeared from the windows; the old broken chairs and stools were gone and new furniture had come; and we knelt down in that home and thanked God! Oh, there is nothing else that will do it! Signing a pledge will not do it; reforms will not do it; you White Ribboners can not do it. It takes the mighty power of the Holy Ghost; it takes the full application of my text to do the work, and then, in that home where sin had abounded, the grace of God just "runs over." \par We have a gospel that will do this, and yet they are trying to turn us aside from it! Do you think we are going to turn aside to preach science and philosophy, when we have a gospel that will do the business like that? And I want to tell you something else: there is nothing that will do that but the full gospel. There is nothing that will reconstruct a home like that but holiness, the second blessing; for that home can never be saved against the wiles of the devil until that man has had the second work of grace in his heart. Oh, you folks that want us to preach something else besides holiness! We will wait until you furnish us something that turns out better goods than ours! \par There may be a little reproach connected with this gospel; but we will share it, and we are glad to be identified with a kind of truth that will enter a man's home, and enter his heart, and enter his life, and reconstruct him, and make him an angel instead of a devil. And that is what our gospel does; that is what holiness does. \par My brother, no difference how far you have gone in sin, God can save you. He likes to get hold of a tough stick now and then just to reveal His power, just to show three worlds what He can do. There is no reason why you should be discouraged; and if you are the wife of a drunken husband, I want to say to you that there is hope for you. There is an up-look to heaven; you can touch a button that will thrill the wire to the upper skies, and bring a blessing that will enter your home and save it from sin. \par Beloved, if you have unsaved loved ones, do not be discouraged about them. We have a gospel that will reach the lowest of the low, as well as the highest of the high, and make us feel that "one is our Master, even Christ, and all we are brethren." And do you know, beloved, that we Christians ought to be ashamed of ourselves that we do not have more faith in the power of the gospel to do the work in difficult cases? We ought not to give folks up as we do. We ought not to despair about people when they backslide. We ought to hold on to God for them. We ought to pull them through the fire, until the grace of God has prevailed, and they are brought to a place of perfect joy. God help us! We are too timid, too unbelieving; we are too faltering. \par This gospel is not so much to refine the naturally good, as it is to save and sanctify those who are awfully and confessedly bad. This gospel is to convert a selfish soul into a bundle of self-sacrifice and self-denial. I know that a great Brooklyn preacher said once that he was tired of helping "men in whom there was no good blood," but how different with our gospel! The Lord seems to go around and pick up folks that other people have gotten through with. He took me in when every one had turned against me, and even my own friends were discouraged about me; then the Lord took me in. Glory to God! The truth of my text is again illustrated. God's grace is able to save the best of sinners. Of course, so far as God is concerned a sinner is a sinner, and according to His estimate a man in the slums of Fifth Avenue is just as vile as a man in the slums of "the Bend." But God is amply able to save the sinners of, what the world terms, "high life." \par A distinguished New York lawyer and his wife were invited to attend the meetings of a Mission downtown in order that, as church members, they might see for themselves what God was doing among the submerged and desperate classes. At the close of the address by the leader of the meeting, an invitation was given for all who wished to be saved to stand up. A "dead beat" stood up over there, a harlot, rose to her feet yonder, and a common sneak thief stood not far distant, while on the platform, back of the leader, stood the lawyer and his wife. The preacher, supposing that the visitors had misunderstood his words, said: "I want only those who want to be saved to stand up." The lawyer and his wife remained standing. \par Nothing else could be done but go on with the altar service. "Let all sinners who will, come to the altar!" The tramp came, the harlot, the thief, they all came, and to the surprise of everybody, the two wealthy visitors began to come, too. In mission work all decent people are usually placed on the platform to avoid the vermin. So, as the visitors began to join the seekers at the altar the leader put out his hand as if to stop them, and said: "This is just for sinners!" "But we are sinners, too, and we want salvation!" was the answer. They were both happily converted, and God has used them since to the reclamation and salvation of thousands. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." \par I remember that at one time I was holding a meeting in a mission and there were a great many spectators -- people who did not care for anything for themselves especially but who had a curiosity to see the riff-raff of society saved. \par When I made the call a number of hard, low cases came forward, and with them the sister of a former President. "Shall I allow her to seek with these desperate individuals?" I said to myself. The Spirit whispered, "Certainly!" and down on her knees went the fashionable lady to find salvation with people far below her socially. Oh, God can save all classes. This text is having hundreds of illustrations: "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." \par Then, beloved, the truth of our text is illustrated in the sanctification of souls from tendencies and appetites and propensities most unholy, so that the heart, where there has been a whole nest of sin, is now sanctified to God. There was anger, and it developed one day, and made you say something you would give this world if you could take back. You have wept bitter tears over it; but the loved one to whom you said it is silent in the grave, and you can not take it back. Oh, the scalding, bitter tears that are shed over hasty words in respectable homes, in homes in highlife, in the drawing room, unkind words and unkind looks, the products of anger in the heart. \par There was a word of impatience -- Oh, mother, you would give the world if you could take it back. Only three weeks before scarlet fever came to your home and took that child away, you were impatient, and you said things and you did things that you would give the world if you could take back; but the child is gone; your opportunity has gone. You were impatient; you remember it. \par Oh, the pride of these times! How it is abusing people. How pride is making people do things that are awfully mortifying and awfully disastrous in their final results! It is pride that ruins many a home. It is pride that breaks many a man up financially. It makes you attempt to live so that you can keep even with your neighbors when your income will not warrant it. Many a man has jumped into the river because his family insisted on living up to the scale of some one else when his income would not warrant it. The determination in these days to dress better and live better than you can afford is caused by pride. \par God save us from this ungodly strutting, from this peacock vainglory, that makes us go around strutting with a suit of clothes on that is being paid for on the installment plan! Women strut around just after Easter with dead birds and rag flowers that have not been paid for! What a story the milliner might tell about her unpaid bills! It is pride that is puffing people up, and making them strut around when they have not paid their debts! We have something in our discipline against living above our incomes. The Lord give us a good dose of discipline if we will not take religion, and swing us back to common decency, so we will do unto people as we would have them do unto us! \par But the heart where anger, and malice, and strife, and impatience, and pride, and all these things have their nest even a heart like that can be sanctified wholly, and made as clean as heaven, that where sin has abounded grace may much more abound. The second blessing; Pentecost; the baptism with the Holy Ghost does this. The fire of God burns up proud flesh, and burns out jealousy and super-sensitiveness, so that when you see two people with their heads together you will not suspect that they are talking about you. You are everlastingly thinking people are talking about you! Beloved, you are too self-important. The fact is that people talk by the hour and never mention your name, and they have things to think of with which you are not connected at all; and it is time we got to the place where we get saved from this jealousy that makes us so sensitive and so suspicious. This gospel will save a man, until when he is put out of office he will feel relieved. You know that is not the case ordinarily; you know that usually when we change officers at the end of the year the man that goes in feels better than the man that goes out. God help us, and give us a salvation that will save us from seeking leadership, and from seeking position, and from wire pulling for a place, and from thinking that we are better qualified for the place than anybody else! In all cases our offices in the church ought to seek the men, and not the men the offices. I dare to say that if there is a man who is qualified for a position it is the man who is not seeking it and is not wanting it. I would not vote for a man for any position if I thought he was wire pulling to get it. There are lots of people who would not wire pull; who would not scheme to be superintendent of the Sunday school, but who have a secret desire in their hearts for it. In fact, we are all made on the same last, and until we get sanctified wholly there is something in us that wants a place, and until then, the best one of us feels sort of good when people say nice things about us. But when a man is sanctified wholly, it not only mortifies him for people to praise him, but it makes him feel like getting down on his face before God. \par This grace would save us from all fretfulness and all stewing and sputtering in the church. The stews are not all in the kitchen; there are stews in other places. I used to help my dear wife put up fruit, and we would can it, and put it down cellar, and the next day, if we heard something sputtering and sizzling, we knew we might just as well go down and get that can and open it and cook it over. If this were not done, in a few days we would have some spoiled fruit on our hands. Lots of people claim to be sanctified; but we hear them sputtering and sizzling, and it is because the fire was not hot enough; there was gas there. Better be boiled over; you did not get fire enough. The Lord give us this second blessing that "where sin abounded, grace may much more abound." \par Again, beloved, the truth of our text is illustrated in the fact that grace not only saves people and sanctifies them wholly, but it counteracts the influence of sin, and destroys even the scars of it. Many a poor fellow thinks, and many a sermon helps him to think, that though he is saved from sin, he has to "suffer the consequences of sin," and the text is quoted, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." I want to tell you that we have a gospel which will "restore the corn that the caterpillar has eaten"; one which will enter a man's soul, and heal his body from the effects, for example, of licentiousness and lust, and make him a well man physically. Say what you like about Divine dealing, we that have been in the slums, and worked in the slums, know that many a man is not fit for respectable society until his rotten body is healed. We must have a gospel that not only proposes to save people, and cure them in their souls, but will touch the body and save it from disease. \par There was St. Augustine; you have loved to call his name. He was one of the Christian fathers; but at twenty-one, that man found himself an awful sinner, with every drop of his blood poisoned from sin, and God saved him and sanctified him, and healed his body, and gave him almost half a century of unparalleled usefulness, and we call him "St. Augustine.'' \par We ought to know what God does do, and what He is willing to do; and that what He will do for one He will do for another. Do not tell me that He is a respecter of persons. Do not tell me that He will do wonderful things for some people and deny others. Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, today, and forever"; and we have a gospel that will touch man, and heal him at every point where the virus of hell has touched him. We have a gospel that will save men from all that sin has brought, and God does not mean to let go of us until He gets us to that place. God seems to love to contradict human opinions, and the thing we say is impossible, God likes to do. \par There was a time when philosophers and learned men proved logically and conclusively that no steamship could ever cross the Atlantic. Of course, like people nowadays, they could not leave the question alone, but met from time to time to go over the matter and see if they were right. So one day, in an upper room in Liverpool, they were going over the whole thing to see that they had made no mistake, and, finally, just as they were concluding again that they were right, that it was an utter impossibility (and yet all the time there were cranks that were trying to find some way of doing it), they looked out of the window and saw the first steamer that ever crossed the Atlantic, coming into the harbor. And just when people prove that we can not be sanctified, we tumble in and get sanctification; and just when a preacher, with a tall hat and white cravat, has proved to his congregation that nobody can be sanctified, the servant frying his batter cakes in the kitchen has received the blessing! And that is not all. Just about the time he does his very best, and presents his strongest argument against it, his very best church people go to a camp meeting or a tent meeting somewhere and get sanctified, and they perplex him until he is moved off from that charge. \par Once more, and I think I am through. The truth of my text is going to be illustrated again. The time is coming when we will have an exhibition that will beat the World's Fair. The time is coming when people will assemble, and God is going to put on exhibition His samples of salvation-- when out of the slums and out of the lowest walks of life He will select a company of people who will come up and go on exhibition, and unitedly illustrate the truth of my text forever and forever. Our day is coming. In numbers we are in the minority. I confess that this world is drifting hellward; I confess the church is denying the Holy Ghost, and trying to turn the holiness people out, and they are being sent to tents and woods. But our day is coming, and we can afford to wait for it. Holiness is not always going to be in the minority. Holiness is not always going to be kicked about without a place to live. The time is coming when Jesus will appear in the clouds of heaven, and those who have been true to Him, and walked with Him down here, will be welcomed to His side to reign with Him forever. When He steps out on the portico of heaven, the law of gravitation will be reversed, and you and I will be drawn to Him. But that is not all: we are not only going to attend the marriage of the Lamb, but we are going to come back to these old battlefields where we have fought for God, and rule and reign over five, ten, twenty, or more cities, according as our reward shall be. \par You need not prepare if you do not want to; but, by the grace of God, I will. In this great time that is coming we are going to exhibit the goods that Divine grace has manufactured, and show to all the galleries of heaven and all the pits of hell what Christ's salvation can do for man. Then the preacher who has preached against this sweet truth -- God pity him! The Official Board that turned you out of the church, with its tall steeple, and plush cushioned pews, and thundering pipe organs, are going to wish in their souls that they had what you have. Holiness is going to be in demand then; every one will want it. Too late! too late! God has it to give away now; but your eject it now, and He will reject you then; you deny holiness now, and it will deny you then; you fail to identify yourself with God's people now, and you will not be permitted to do so then. \par There is coming a time when things will be straightened up. The time is coming when you and I are going to see the exhibitions of Divine grace, when we will see what God has done and is doing, and how He will reject those who rejected Christ. He has not much more place in many churches now than when He came before. Folks do not want Him. If he went into the temple now, He would drive out the money changers. I am not abusing anybody; my heart is full of tenderness; but God raised up the shrinking Jeremiah to be a reprover of kings, and I am going to rebuke sin whether it is in the pulpit or in the slums, no matter where it is. \par The truth of my text is soon to be illustrated again. The time is coming when we are going up. I feel a great deal like it now. I walk the streets of your city, scarcely pressing the pavements; I only touch a little here and there, just enough to let me know that I am still in Cincinnati; but my soul is walking around in the clouds, and I am rejoicing that I do not belong to this country, that I am not a Yankee or a Buckeye; God has a city in the upper skies, and I am going in just as soon as I get through down here. \par I come back to you from the border lines of eternity. For weeks I have stood where I could almost hear the gates swing on their hinges; I could almost see those shining streets. I have comeback to you, and tell you that this we are preaching is the truth. I said to my wife, when she was standing in the River, "Thee knows we have been accused of being radical, of preaching more than was true, and now I would like to know just how it is;"' and she said, "It is all true, and more;"' and if she said that when she was in the River, I am determined to preach the gospel with stronger conviction and more courage than ever before. \par We are coming in at last, not like an old battleship, with masts and sails torn away and flags all in ribbons, drawn across the bar by an old tug; not thus; but with our flags all flying, with our pennants in the wind and our sails swelling in the gale of heaven, we will come sweeping in. And then, when we disembark and go up the streets of light, the angels of heaven are going to takeoff their hats to us. They will stand up to see the sight; and as we march up Central Avenue, they will look at us and at each other and then down to where we were, and then up to where we are, and, lost in wonder, will exclaim, "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound!" \par This truth will echo throughout all eternity. We will sit down above the angels; for when man was created, he was made a little lower than the angels; but when he is redeemed he is made above archangels; we are going to sing the song of redemption, and entertain angels, telling them about the battles down here. They will want to know all about these things. O, it will be glorious to tell them the story about the Battle of the Wilderness, of Gethsemane, of Calvary, of Waterloo, of Gettysburg, of Cincinnati; to relate how, although the wicked forces of this city were against us, God saved souls at the altar, and brought them up to shine for ever and ever. \par I will be glad to tell the angels in those days the story of a gospel that reached the worst people; that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. The thought of it makes me feel like a victorious warrior. We ought to feel encouraged, and have an upward gaze looking straight into heaven. Every one who has this second blessing know what I mean. If you do not have it, you can receive it now, if you will. Will you? \cf2\lang3082 \cf0 \par \cf2\lang2058\par } year; but the secrets of God, discovered in these days by men of research, are the more ordinary secrets which, like shells, may be picked up along the seashore. They are not more than a tithe of the secrets yet to be revealed. \par The best things in the natural world are hidden away. They are not lying around loose on top of the ground, to be destroyed by the plunderer's hand. They are not for "bums and soaks" and red nosed drunkards. The valuable things are put where only the deserving can find them. Our precious metals are hidden away in the earth and in the mountains, and the rocks must be struck and blasted and burned with fire in order to secure the hidden ore. Diamonds come from great depths; pearls are taken out of fathoms of water, and often they are encased in a rough shell, covered by a film, requiring the skill of an expert to perceive their value and remove the film. The beauty of a diamond is almost always a secret, brought out by great skill in shaping and polishing. \par This principle is not only true in the mineral kingdom, but it is also true in the vegetable. The choicest kernels of nuts are put up in rough shells, which have to be broken. The kernel of the walnut, the exquisite milk of the coconut, are hidden away, and challenge the energies of the industrious boy. There are secrets of science, and of art, and of invention. Nearly everything we prize in these days is of modern discovery. Our great grandfathers did not know the secrets which are patent to all today, and are of untold usefulness. \par The labor of Watt gave us the steam engine; the toil of Stephenson, a railroad; the research of Edison and Bell, the telephone, -- and all these men are men who searched for God's secrets, and found them: none of them "tramps," none of them "dead beats," none of them idlers, sitting on goods-boxes whittling and spitting tobacco juice. They were men who denied themselves of money, of comfort and pleasures, denied themselves socially and domestically, and shut themselves up with the works of God, and searched out these things that you are so glad to use in everyday life. There is that man Edison, shut up with nature and discovery and invention, until you can gain an interview with the President of the United States more easily than with him. Natural secrets are shut away from everybody and everything. The man who finds them has to search after them, frequently at great cost to himself. \par Down in South America they get down on their faces, and then on their sides, and then on their backs, and pick diamonds from the clefts of the mountains; and I want to say to you that just as men willing to deny themselves get the secrets of nature, so, they that deny themselves and search, find the secrets of the Spirit. God has some things that men do not find out by simply holding down the end of a pew. He has some things in the realm of divine grace that are known only to those who fear God and pay the price. \par There are a great many people who think Christians are just alike in heaven; but the Bible does not teach it. All men are not the same here, and they will not be the same there; and some of you folks, if you ever go to heaven, you will go bareheaded -- you will have no crown. As certainly as the President has his cabinet, the Lord has His; as certainly as Jesus had a few disciples who stood close to Him and went with Him everywhere, to whom He revealed His secrets and told the things of His life, God has a select few to whom He tells His secrets. There are a lot of church members here who do not know anything about the things I am talking about tonight! I am not saying that God shuts you out, but you shut yourselves out. Like the tramp who sits around and never undertakes to find out the secrets of nature, there are people in the churches who live ease loving, pleasure seeking lives, and never deny themselves anything, and never get God's blessing. \par God has some secrets in the spiritual realm that He is revealing to the people who are living near Him! He has some secrets that are delightful; and it is enough to make a man's mouth water to know that these things are here, and can be known if he only have energy to get at them. But they are put up in cases, and are hidden away, and folks that have nothing to do but take things as they come, never know what I am talking about tonight, viz.: the secret of the Lord. \par The discovery of some secrets in the natural world has sometimes produced great joy. I remember that a Greek mathematician, when he made some great discovery in Geometry, ran into the street, crying: "I have found it! I have found it!" If a Greek mathematician could get shouting happy over a discovery in mathematics, why should you think it strange that we should get shouting happy over the discovery of some secret in the spiritual world? It is a wonder to me that people can get God's secrets and keep as still as they do about them. \par I want to call your attention to some of these secrets tonight. One of them is pardon, regeneration, the new birth. The new birth is a secret none know except those who have it. Go out on the streets of Cincinnati, and take a man who does not know regeneration, and try to explain regeneration to him so that he will understand it! Jesus Christ Himself can not do it. He tried it on Nicodemus; but Nicodemus could not understand the new birth, and no one can understand except one who has it. It is a secret that is revealed by the Holy Ghost in the heart. \par The heathen world would like to know this secret -- it would like to know how to get rid of sin. Men are making long pilgrimages, they are walking on spikes, they are throwing their children into the Ganges, they are doing everything they know to get rid of their sins; but they do not find pardon; and the reason is, that they have not the Bible. \par Job said, "How shall a man be just with God?" That was the question of the Old Testament, that was the question of that age. It is the question of all ages. That was the question that rose in the smoke of thousands of altars and flowed in the blood of millions of victims. That was the question: "How shall a man be just with God?" It is answered at Calvary. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to reveal this glorious secret to us, that we might know how to get rid of sin. You can not explain it to a man so that he can understand it -- to the most brainy, the most logical reasoner in this country -- you can not make him understand regeneration; for it is a secret revealed in the heart. \par Twenty-five years ago I stood up in the old Quaker church with the conviction in my heart that I was very sinful, and I meant to say so; but I was only on my feet thirty seconds; and when I rose to my feet I was an awful sinner, and I sat down a saint. I had only confessed a sentence or two; but the heavens opened, an glory dropped into my soul, and I was saved, and every sin I ever committed was removed, and God whispered a secret to my soul that I have not got over. Folks did not understand it, church members did not understand it, preachers did not understand it. One preacher said I was "like a hotbed plant, and would soon wither"; but God whispered a secret in my soul. I doubt if there is a crowned head today that understands this stupendous secret; but I was just a plowboy, and I found it. God gave me this secret in my soul, and after all the scorching suns of twenty-five summers, and all the bleak north winds of twenty-five winters, I have not given up yet. Hallelujah! \par O, if you had this secret, you would know what I am talking about. I am not talking about holiness now, I am talking about regeneration -- something to which many church members are strangers. They have joined the church and been baptized; but they do not know anything about experimental religion. But God one day saved my soul, and gave me a new name, and I knew it, and all the college professors and all the Doctors of Divinity would not be able to get it out of me. It is put in there to stay. It is a little secret which the Lord and I have together. O, if you ever had the genuine thing, you would know what I am talking about. It is not signing a pledge or joining the church. Lots of people have their names on the church book, and they had just as well be on aboard fence, so far as saving them is concerned. \par Again, beloved, holiness is a secret. There never was a time in the history of the Church when so many people were debating the question of holiness as today. There are preachers everywhere discussing and opposing holiness. They fix it once, and say that the thing is settled; but for their lives they can not let it alone. by do they not preach a good straight sermon against holiness, and fix it once and for all? Just about the time a Doctor of Divinity gets it proved in his pulpit that no one can have it, one of his best old sisters tumbles in and gets it, and then he has to preach again. \par The time was, in the history of the Church, when holiness was pretty much confined to the Quaker Church. That was seventy-five or a hundred years before the Methodists. (You Methodists came lagging along behind, anyhow.) The time was, again, when holiness was confined to the Methodist Episcopal Church; that was about a hundred or seventy-five years ago; but the time has come in the last twenty-five or thirty years, when God has launched a movement that is spreading all around the world. The High Church Episcopalian and the Presbyterian and the Congregationalist and the Lutheran, are getting interested about this question of holiness. \par This is one of the signs that Jesus is coming soon. God is selecting a Bride out of the churches of His Son; God's people are fast becoming a unit. I have as good friends who are stanch holiness workers in the Methodist Church as there are anywhere. I have as good, strong, wholehearted friends in the Congregational Church as there are in the Methodist, and so in a number of denominations. We have come to a place in this movement where God is not going to be shut up to a denomination, but is reaching out and extending His hand to all denominations and all classes. He is going into the jungles, and into the slums, and saving people and sanctifying them wholly. \par Holiness is a secret, and no one knows it but those who have it. And you may know it, and the fellow who sits next you may know no more about it than a Hottentot. Your wife may know it, and you may congratulate yourself on the fact, and then know no more about it than a heathen in Africa. It is a secret. You can not get it by study. You can not get it by work. If you could get it by work, all our "supper folks'" would have it. They would get it "baking cakes and washing dishes"; they would work themselves to skeletons but they would have it. We can not get it that way. It is a secret. It is hidden away; and even if a man is brainy he can not get it by way of his head, for it comes by way of the heart; and no man can get what I am talking about until he discounts everything above the collar bone. Do you know that holiness is something you can not understand until you get it? But they who have it understand it; don't you hear them saying "Amen"? It is the folks that have not got it that can't understand it. When you get the blessing, it will be as plain to you as high noon. You can not see in the bunghole of a barrel very well, but if you tumble into the barrel you can see out all right. And you can not see into this blessing by way of your head, but if you tumble into it with your heart, then you will understand it! \par The Lord reveals it to people. God bless you, I do not take as much pains in "explaining holiness" to people as I used to. I believe our holiness people make a mistake in entering into this matter with so much reasoning. I used to take a great deal of time in defining the steps; and it maybe that sometimes folks get into it by steps, but most of them tumble in. After we get this second blessing, God reveals other secrets to us. One is the secret of faith. God whispered the secret to Abraham. Daniel knew the secret. Daniel and God had talked the matter over, and God said, "Daniel, if you will be true to me, and sleep with the lions, I will send an angel and stop their mouths." And Daniel said, "I will do it"; and God let Daniel go into the lions' den, and he stopped their mouths. He would not let you go into the lions' den; you will not be honored with a trip like that, because you will not be quiet and trust God. You would be screaming to get out, and the lions would eat you up. But God knew Daniel, and God knew Daniel would trust him, for he had "the secret of the Lord." Daniel went into the lions' den and slept like a baby, and it was the king who walked the house all night that night. \par When I went to a New England city, to be pastor of a church, and have charge of two missions and five or six different corps of mission workers, they told me I would have many things to encounter that would be very difficult; and I said, "If anybody has to walk the floor and lie awake, it will be the other folks." And God kept me where He could put me to sleep every night. \par When a man gets this secret he can believe for anything, and get it. I know a woman who had prayed twenty years for her husband. Sometimes she would pray at him, and sometimes about him, and sometimes for him. When she was at low ebb spiritually she was cross, and would scold and spoil all the good she had done. But one night she got desperately in earnest, and cried for the Holy Ghost to save her husband. He retired, while she staid on her knees until eleven o'clock, and then until twelve, and then until one, and then she waited and wrestled with God until the clock struck two; and then the heavens opened, and the fire came down, and she had the witness that her husband would be saved. She also retired, and her husband waking with a start, jumped up, went down on his knees, and prayed earnestly for God to help him., and by morning he was saved! When you get this experience, you can feel assured that God has your loved ones in hand. He will attend to them. Without this secret the probability is that you will tell them this, that, and the other, and never get them saved. \par But you get struck with lightning yourself, and God will send conviction that will move your relatives. Would you not like to save them? This is the way to do it, -- make your own life right. You come to me to "save your unsaved children!" If the mother would learn to live as sweet a life at home, in her kitchen, as when she has company, her children would soon be converted. Some of you are so cross and hard to get along with, that no one wants your religion. God bless you, I do not wonder that your children do not want it; I do not wonder that they do not get saved. Lord, help us to get rid of inbred sin, and get saved through and through, and then we will have something that people want! There is a secret of power which the Church ought to know. Someone says, "I wish I had power. Power for what? Power to get a flaming notice in the newspaper, power to make a show, power to be somebody? That is of no account; but we do need spiritual power; and there is a secret of power that the people ought to have that will give us power every day of the year. Every time an evangelist has marvelous success, people wonder and say, Where is the secret of his power? But the secret of power is in the Holy Ghost; and if people would receive the Holy Ghost they would have power for the successful accomplishment of everything which they should do. \par Before I close I want to call your attention to the fact that there is a secret of joy about which the rank and file know nothing. When you get this blessing you can follow James' injunction, "When ye fall into divers temptations, count it all joy." You can rejoice on Monday as well as on Sunday. You can rejoice when everything is against you, when you are out of a job; you can rejoice when you are out of money; you can rejoice when your friends go back on you; you can rejoice when the devil is near; you can whistle and sing and shout and laugh and praise God when there is nothing in sight to rejoice about! If you put your washing out, and the clothesline breaks, and all your week's laundry has to be washed over again, why, Hallelujah! I know a woman who shouted over just such circumstances, and exulted in her kitchen as much as on the platform before a large congregation. I am talking to you tonight about something that is intensely practical. It is something that will make a man rejoice when his meals are not ready; it is something that will make you praise God when the beefsteak is overdone, and when things do not go to suit you. You will thank God and eat the beefsteak, burnt as it is. I tell you that when something goes wrong in your home, and you go out and slam the door, and leave your wife feeling hurt, and go down the street -- you, a member of the church and on the Official Board -- you need something, and need it badly! This secret will make us live just as God wants us to live, wherever we are. What is the difference what I preach to you, anyhow, if I am not right at home? What does it matter what I may say from your platform, if my two sons do not have confidence in me? I would rather have the confidence of my two boys than all the honors that the world and the church could roll at my feet. O for something that makes us behave ourselves in our own homes! \par My wife used to tell -- and I love to tell anything that my wife ever told -- my wife used to tell about a man who received this blessing out West. He had been one of these scolding church members. (Scores of people are members of church and scold terribly at home.) He got the blessing one night, and came home late, and found his children up. Ordinarily when he came home late and found them up he gave them a good scolding and sent them to bed. They began to look frightened; but he came in smiling, and he said: "Why, children, are you up yet? I thought you would be in bed." And they said: "Yes, papa, we thought we would like to sit up until you came. "And he said: "Now you go down stairs and get some nuts and apples and popcorn, and we will have a good, old-fashioned, nut cracking, apple roasting, corn popping time;" and they were thunderstruck sure enough; and when they got down into the cellar the little boy said to his sister: "Sis, do you know what I think?" She said: "No, bub; what do you think?" "Well," he said, "I think pap's going to die." \par Well, do you know that is the idea that people have, that if you get a blessing so that you live very good here, that you are about ready for heaven; and wives feel anxious about their husbands when they get a good spell, and mothers feel sort of good when the sick child gets cross? You say, "It is getting better." As long as it was not cross, you thought it was getting ready for heaven, and you are glad to see it cross; you say, O, the child is getting cross; it is getting better!" \par But, we have a gospel that takes the crossness all out of folks, and makes them live upright all the days of their lives. People do not understand it; and some of you, if you were to get the blessing here, would behave yourself so much better that your wife would get scared and say, "John is going to die;" but the fact is that death takes place right here at the altar. \par Beloved, when you get this blessing you can laugh when there is nothing to laugh about. No one else sees anything to laugh at, but you see it. Do you remember that when Israel walked with God they always had good water, and when they murmured they always lost it? The river that ran from that "smitten" rock was like Lost River in Tennessee; it would disappear at times. And onetime they murmured, and God said they would have to dig for the water. And they went to digging; but they found no water, and the Lord said: "Get around the hole and sing." Sing around an empty hole! But when they sang, the water sprang up! If you have not got salvation enough to sing over an empty hole, a dry well, you have not got the blessing of the text. What is needed is a man who can shout when there is no water in sight, who can praise God when everything looks like midnight darkness. \par Any one can praise God after the devil has been defeated; but it takes a man full of salvation who can dance when he is being tempted. God has such people. I have gone to places where everything was as cold and frigid as an iceberg, and I began to praise the Lord for the revival that was coming. Folks did not see it, and they did not believe anything would come of it, and they held off to see if it was "going to go on or not;" for you know there are people who, if it does not "go" are not in it, but if it is a success they ''have been in it from the beginning!" But it always goes! Glory to God! A bit of experience right here: It has been years since I have gone to any place without a revival. The last three pastorates I had, I had a revival right along. I would not be pastor of a church, if I could not have converts in July and August. The last pastorate I had we had a constant revival, and July was the greatest month we had. \par I am not done with this subject, but I am going to stop. There doesn't seem to be any end to sermons anyway. If you are going to get the secret you will have to come and walk with the folks who possess it. If you are fearing an elder, or the President of the Ladies' Aid Society, or Brother B. or Sister C., you will never get this blessing; for the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. If you are willing to go alone, and do God's errands, and please Him, you can have the blessing I am talking about tonight. You had better pay the price, and the Lord will give you the secret of regeneration, of power, of joy, and a whole lot of things I have not mentioned -- he will flood your life with the second blessing. Praise the Lord! \cf2\lang3082 \cf0 \par \cf2\lang2058\par } { ?G08 The Secret of the Lord{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 The Secret of the Lord \par \b0\fs22 The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant"(\cf1\ul Psa_25:14\cf0\ulnone ). \par The natural world is full of secrets. It is a sort of treasure house, filled with mysteries, about which man knows but little. Science is discovering more and more everyng we impart strength to those with whom we come in contact. If God has commanded us to be strong, we cannot afford to be weak. He has commanded nothing for which He has not provided. Every command carries with it the weight of a promise. He has placed within our easy grasp ample provision for all the strength and success which He expects of us. But there is a determined purpose on the part of many to eliminate from Christianity all that is superhuman and miraculous. The tendency of the age is to exalt man and displace God. If the supernatural could be taken out of the Bible, and its miraculous occurrences explained on the ground of natural causation, many so-called clever people would be greatly delighted. The tall men of our modern institutions of learning have reduced the phenomena of life and the world to a self-acting mechanism, running by so cunning a contrivance of pulleys, and belts, and shafts, and dynamos, that there is no need of a God. The natural man is never better pleased than when he can supplant God. \par Christianity is in great danger of being reduced to "a system" of theology and ethics, doctrine and dogma, laws and creeds. Many who "believe in Christianity" look upon it as simply a great institution. Many of them are devoted to its interests, are willing, in some instances, to shape their lives more or less according to its rules, and are most untiring in their efforts to further its interests. But they are not acquainted with its Author. Their knowledge of Him is indirect and remote. But away with such cold, dead, mechanical theory and practice. If Christianity is not as supernatural as in the days of Paul and Stephen, it is nothing at all. If the power of God is not so imminent and active today as in the times of Elijah or Daniel, it is nothing whatsoever. The system of redemption through Jesus Christ is intensely personal. It is the revelation of a personal God, the reception of a personal Christ, the enduement with a personal Holy Ghost. Christianity requires every moment of the presence and living hand of its Author. \par There was never a time in history when the world needed supernatural religion more than it does today. There was never a time when there was more need of the church emphasizing the supernatural element in religion than now. From the day of Pentecost until this hour it has taken the extraordinary, the astounding, the amazing, the astonishing to wake the old world up so that she would attend to religion. Nothing ordinary will ever capture China, India, or Africa for Christ. Nothing human will ever save rationalistic Germany, infidel France, or Unitarian New England. Man was never so great in his own eyes as he is today, never so boastful, never so defiant and rebellious. Intellect never asserted its pride and carnal importance as it does in this the last decade of the century. It is time we had something to humble us and bring us to a knowledge of ourselves. France's greatest pulpit orator, Massillon, stood over the coffin of the great Louis, and amid the assembled nobles said the simple words: "God only is great." It was a sublime moment, and the words struck every heart with solemnity. The insignificance of man, and the all surpassing greatness of the Lord impressed the people with great force, and the people wept and sobbed, melted by the strange seriousness of the hour. \par But we ought to be impressed with our nothingness and God's majesty and greatness all the time. A distinguished clergyman was crossing the Atlantic. It was noticed by the passengers that he would sit for hours each day watching the rolling sea. The gay and thoughtless crowd of promenaders passed him again and again, and were often amused at his silent, serious face. At last a young dude stepped up to him and said: "Doctor, what do you see out there that interests you so very much?" The venerable man turned his face full on the youngster, and said in answer: "Nothing but God." The dandy retreated. When we get to a place where we see nothing but God our enemies are forced to withdraw. The text says that "They that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits." \par Let us notice for a little time the two words, "strong" and "exploits," in relation to personal experience. When we recognize the utter worthlessness of all things in our own experience we will begin to be strong. We never find God until we get through with everybody else as saviors. There is a time when we are getting saved when we want "just God." One of the mistakes we often make after we are saved is that we begin to depend on someone else. God awakened us, convicted us, and converted us; we acknowledge that, and then inconsistently depend on someone else. We know that God saved us, but we foolishly undertake to sanctify ourselves, forgetting that salvation is of the Lord from first to last. Sanctification is not by works, nor by growth, nor by development, nor by death, nor by evolution, nor by anything but by God Himself. \par Each soul must have a personal revelation of God. Jacob was an altogether different man after Peniel. Job's life was revolutionized after he could say, "Now mine eye seeth thee." Moses was never the same man after he met the God of fire at Horeb. Joshua could never have taken Jericho if he had not met the captain of the Lord's hosts. Isaiah never did much prophesying until he saw the vision of "Jehovah sitting upon a throne high and lifted up." Paul was a high churchman, but his life was worse than a failure until he met God out in the "big road" going to Damascus. We must all meet God for ourselves. A personal knowledge of Him will make us mighty. Mountains of guilt will melt away, billows of sorrow and waves of grief and tumult will give place to "peace that floweth like a river. \par In our life work as well as in our experience we must be strong and do exploits for Him. Then we recognize God as all in all and know Him as we may know Him we can take the jawbone of an ass and slay a thousand Philistines. We can down Jericho with a ram's horn; slay a giant with a boy's sling; tumble a cake of barley meal into the camp of Midianites and put to flight three hundred thousand armed men. God can thresh a mountain with a worm; all He needs is a worm --they are scarce. \par Oh, if we only knew God! Then we could open the skies in judgment against sin and in salvation for the sinners: we could water three million souls from a flinty rock by the use of a mere shepherd's stick. The crying need is not more brains, money, eloquence, human magnetism, new methods nor better appointments. All we need is to know God, the Mighty God, the Irresistible God, the All-conquering God. \par There is a great temptation to get into bondage to methods and appliances. We catch a few fish, and then burn incense to our nets. We succeed in some method, and then decide that that method is the only one. We expect God to duplicate Himself again and again, and when He does not we are disappointed. \par Too often we undertake to do things ourselves. Like the disciples on the sea of Gennesaretwe, in our self-sufficiency, undertake to manage the ship, and let the Master lie down to sleep. It is no wonder that we get into storms and danger. After we have awakened Him and He has brought a great calm, we too frequently take hold of the steering wheel again and undertake to oversee the ship ourselves. When we put our hands on we find that He takes His off, relinquishing His generalship to us. If we would only recognize the Christ of God in the person of the Holy Ghost and permit Him to fight our battles for us we would find that "the slain of the Lord are many." "For the battle is not yours but God's." "Ye shall not fight in this battle.'' "Stand still and see the salvation of God." "Not any man shall be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life." \par We must stop depending upon forms and rules and methods and folks and things. We need an invisible force, an unseen but mighty God. \par I was sailing on the beautiful waters of Narragansett Bay. In our own harbor among many fine vessels lying at anchor was a large, fine looking, four-masted schooner. A friend beside me said, "Look! There is the 'Walker Armington,' the only vessel of her kind on the Atlantic coast."" What is there about her peculiar?" I said; for in appearance there was nothing to distinguish her from other fine vessels lying in the harbor. But my friend pointed out that her fourth mast served not only as a mast but as a smokestack. She had an engine down in her hull by which she was able to be independent of tugs and tow boats. She could thread the narrowest channels into the most intricate of harbors without spreading sail or making "tacks." I said, "Since God sanctified my soul I am the 'Walker Armington.' I have an engine for personal use built down in my soul. I do not depend on the direction of the wind, nor upon someone of strong convictions and great power to tug me in and out the harbor." \par "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." When we depend less on outside things and more on God we will do "exploits." \par When the temple was consecrated by Solomon and sanctified by the down coming clouds of God's presence, the people had nothing to do but array themselves in white linen and sing and shout. God honored the action, and the Shekinah came down until the priests could not minister. "Being arrayed in white linen," "it came to pass that as the trumpeters and singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord" "that the house was filled with the cloud." One thing the matter with us is that we over estimate our own importance and place. We think that too much depends upon us. We are self-important. Our place is to stand and sing arrayed in the white robes of entire holiness. \par When the children of Ammon, and Moab, and Mount Seir came up against Jehoshaphat and the Lord's army, Jehoshaphat cried to God, and said: "O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what to do; but our eyes are upon thee." And God answered: "Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God's. Ye shall not fight in this battle; set yourselves, standstill and see the salvation of God. Fear not, nor be dismayed, for the Lord will be with you." And Jehoshaphat "appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness." "And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments." It is so today. When we begin to sing and praise the beauty of holiness and stand still expectantly then the Lord sends salvation. Many a time God's servants come into times of awful conflict and in the absence of feeling they begin to praise the Lord, and feeling springs up and great victory comes. Let our praise keep pace with our prayer. Praise the Lord, "for His mercy endureth forever." \par We will be strong and do exploits in the salvation of other men when we recognize nothing but God as our power and help. We depend upon so many second class things in this world; why should we not have the best? There are many human schemes and agencies and reforms and projects and propositions, but there is nothing that can save souls from an endless hell except the power of God. The Holy Ghost must convict and we must depend upon Him to accomplish all that is of value in salvation work. Some one has said that we are living in the Highway and Hedge Dispensation." \par This is a time of great opportunity in neglected fields. God is working in the slums and in the jungles. He is preeminently active in fields hitherto unworked. We must work where God is working if we would have any success. God forbid that we should thunder away on old battlefields after the war is all over. \par The noble founder of the Chinese Mission was sailing from New York to Canton a century ago. The captain asked him scornfully: "So you are going to convert the Chinese, are you?" "No," said Robert Morrison; "but God is." Over against the dark cloud which hangs so heavy over the foreign field is a beautiful rainbow of promise of mercy and hope. If we "know God" all things are possible with God and all things are possible to him that believeth. \par An old unlearned blacksmith, out in West New York State, with dark low brow and broad brawny hands, received a conviction that there ought to be a revival in his community. There had been none for twenty-five years. He closed his shop, would not lift a hammer nor shoe a horse, but went down on his knees and cried to God until God answered. Then he took his way to the backslidden pastor and said, "I want you to announce a seekers' meeting; we are going to have a revival." \par "A seekers' meeting? I will announce no such thing! There has not been a seeker since I came into this charge, and more than that there is no prospect of any." But the old blacksmith kept insisting until the preacher to get rid of him consented to announce a seekers' meeting to be held at the old man's home at sunrise Monday morning. The preacher in making the announcement was careful to clear himself of liability to embarrassment by saying that he had no faith in it and did not believe any one would be there. But long before sunrise the blacksmith's house was full and the yard overflowing, and hardened sinners, strong men, were lying on the grass weeping and crying to God for mercy. All this was before a word had been said to those who came. A great and lasting revival broke out and swept the country for miles around. \par We may "be strong and do exploits" when in the trials and conflicts and persecutions of life, by depending absolutely upon God. He will open our eyes to mountains full of chariots and horsemen of fire so that we can look at the enemy and say: "They that be for us are more than they that be against us." \par In the twelfth chapter of Acts we are told that "Peter was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him." There was something behind that word "but" that was stronger than all of Herod's troops and prison bars. In a brief space of time Peter was not only free, but Herod was a corrupting corpse. God brings difficult things into my life and your life that He may show His power in removing them. Remember when trouble comes into your life that God is standing "within the shadow, keeping watch above His own: to see whether you will trust Him or sink ingloriously into despair. There are two ways of looking at a difficulty: it may be either a barrier to progress or a ladder to lift you to heaven. God put Jericho in Joshua's way that he might batter down her stone walls with ram's horns, and get a victory that would shine through all the roll of the centuries. He permitted Daniel to go into a lion's den that he might astonish angels, baffle devils, and strike a heathen king and all his subjects with profound conviction. He put the Red Sea across the path of advancing Israel that He might have the opportunity of dividing it and leading His chosen people across dry shod. Paul was permitted to go into prison at Philippi in order that he might shake the old prison walls to pieces, save the jailor and his family, set up a church in his house, and liberate all the other prisoners. And when God lets His saints get into prison today it is that they may stand true to Him, and bring someone else out with them. We ought never to go into jail without bringing somebody else with us. We can afford to be bound for the sake of getting an opportunity to liberate other souls. \par God sent Paul to Rome with irons on his limbs that he might plant a church in Caesar's household. And many of God's dear people today if they would only submit to being humbled and degraded in men's eyes would be wondrously used and exalted in God's work and estimation. \par Let us get through with our own plans and our own power. Let us get on God's side rather than attempt to pull Him over to help us and be on our side. It was a fortunate event when Joshua met the captain of the Lord's host "over against Jericho" and he got down on his face and resigned his leadership and gave the Son of God command. \par Let us believe God for greater things. There is a contrivance used by stock herders in the West by which a trough is filled with water automatically. The weight of the animal which is searching for water in the trough presses an automatic spring so that the water is turned on, and the trough is abundantly supplied with fresh cool water. But the animal must be fully on the platform before the mechanism will work. It must be a complete consecration. A conservative old ox who feels his way by placing only two feet on the platform never gets the water. And the complete and unreserved and entire consecration brings a full salvation and a knowledge of God and an abundance of strength, which enable us to do exploits. \cf2\lang1033 \cf0 \par \pard\cf2\lang2058\par } ``Q cO10 Larger Outlook, or Spiritual Enlargement{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\fnǁe #709 Exploits{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 Exploits \b0 \par \fs22 "But the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits" (\cf1\ul Dan_11:32\cf0\ulnone ). \par Someone has truthfully said: "Weakness is a spreading malady; strength is a spreading energy. If we are weak we scatter weakness, we make others weak. If we are stroil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 A Larger Outlook, or Spiritual Enlargement \b0 \par \fs22 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations"(\cf1\ul Isa_54:2\cf0\ulnone ). \par Many Scriptures have divers meanings and applications. They apply, for example, to the life of State, Church or Home; and they are also of times adapted to a spiritual interpretation, fitting most exquisitely into the inner life and character of the individual Christian. There are Scriptures also which refer primarily to the experience of the individual, and then secondarily to that of the community or church or state. \par There are two shoals which we must avoid, and they are on opposite sides of the channel. The one is the shoal of Literalization, the other is the shoal of Spiritualization. Now and then we meet a man who is so literal and absolute in his understanding of the Scriptures that he gets no soul food from them; there are other readers of the Bible who go to such extreme lengths in spiritualizing and mystifying it as to utterly destroy its original force and meaning. In the passage under consideration we have one which can with impunity be applied first to the Christian himself, then to the church of which he is only one of the members. \par The prophet here, by way of felicitous and effective illustration, makes use of the primitive tent. It is the simplest of human habitations. Wherever a pole, some cords or splints, a little bark or canvas or skin are to be found, there a tent can be made. It is as easily struck as pitched, and almost as readily enlarged. When the growing necessities of the family demand larger quarters, all that is required is a little longer pole, a trifle more string, and some additional bark or canvas, and lo, you can at once stretch forth the curtains of your habitation. \par We have said that the tent type is applicable to the church and individual. We wish to notice first that the enlargement is a symmetrical enlargement: "Thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left hand." Hebrew scholars tell us that the word translated "break forth" has the meaning of "burst out." This would suggest very high internal pressure. Larger quarters must be had at any cost. That illiterate man who was converted in the slums and who said, "If I can't speak, I'll bust," had precisely the right idea. Salvation can not live in a human soul without expression. It must break forth in prayer, testimony, song and shouts of praise. The soul filled with God is a spiritual Vesuvius in action. The law of growth is a fundamental principle of both nature and redemption. Progression is an inexorable law of divine life; when either a plant or a soul stops growing it begins to die. Stagnation means corruption and putrefaction. The corpse belongs to the worm. When a spring ceases to flow it becomes a pool, a stagnant, malaria breeding swamp. \par The Christian has his choice between growth and decay, progress and stagnation. "Forward," is the watchword of full salvation, and it is either to go forward or to go backward. You are either greatly in advance of your experience when converted or you are a backslider. If there has ever been a time when you had more salvation than you have now you are a proper candidate for "the mourner's bench." You may be unwilling to admit your fall, you may be going on with as loud or louder profession than ever and with a great bustle and rush of church work, but if there was ever a time when you had more faith, more love and more joy than you have today then you are "fallen from grace" and in danger of the wrath of God. \par It is refreshing to find those who have enough salvation to want more. The only way you can retain what you have is to weight it down with more. These are the days of tornadoes and cyclones, and unless your conversion is capped with full salvation it will blow away. The great plan of salvation is one which provides for no halts and no furloughs. There is no snail pace gradualism getting nowhere in particular, but a double quick step up across mighty and distinct epochs in the history of the soul. \par There must be a point from which to advance. We must be in a designated place before we can take a rational step. Mere movement is not always progress. The children of Israel "moved and pitched" all over the country, but they did not advance as long as they stayed east of Jordan. Multitudes are tacking and jibing and veering and backing until they have lost all reckoning, and may be, for all they know, in the region of icebergs or rounding Gibraltar. \par The point from which we make the most rapid progress is Mount Zion. While there is some growth between Calvary and the Upper Room, not much progress is made until the train sweeps through the station at Mt. Zion and begins to climb the grade of "Holiness Heights." The lack of satisfactory growth prior to Pentecost is due to the presence of carnality. It hinders and chokes and throttles the growing principle. This is removed by the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire. Then God Himself is the propelling force of our life, and, planted in clean and wholesome soil, we spread and enlarge and flourish. The enlargement must be of the entire man. A one-sided tent is a disgrace to the tenter, and a lopsided Christian is an abnormality. An enlargement of love at the expense of righteousness and justice would be unnatural and distressing. Some have dwelt upon the love side of salvation until they have lost sight of the eternal truth that the gospel is arrayed against every unholy and unclean thing. On the other hand, a few have dwelt upon justice and equity until they have become harsh and censorious. We frequently meet those who so constantly emphasize the graces of patience and meekness that they neglect the proper discipline of their children. Now and then there is a man who makes so much of law and order as to become sort of a family constable or a household boss. This enlargement is of the heart rather than of the head. There is, then, an "enlargement of the heart" which is not only harmless, but beneficial. We are not to have new intellects nor new brains, although after heart enlargement we make better use of what we have than we did before. And no matter how great the capacity of any genius or thinker, his usefulness will be greatly enhanced by an abundance of the grace of God. \par Let us notice some of the other characteristics of the enlargement spoken of in the text. We are commanded to "spare not," or rather, more accurately, "grudge not." This strikes a mortal blow at human selfishness. God's thought is to transform the selfish soul into self-sacrifice and self-forgetfulness. "Grudge not;" give liberally of all you have. A stingy soul can never be enlarged; it will grow smaller and smaller every day. Small, base souls are an irritation and a nuisance, both in the home and in the church; large souls always bless and help us. "There is that scattereth and yet increaseth, and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." "God loveth a cheerful giver." Dr. Gordon says that that word "cheerful'' means ''hilarious.'' \par Most men look very serious when the collection is taken, but God's thought is that a man ought to give largely, then shout over it. Just think of a man tossing a bill into the basket instead of the customary copper cent, and then just chuckling and laughing over the privilege. As a matter of experience, the collection will take the shout out of an average congregation. Imagine a day coming when men will be so full of glory and of God that when they see the collectors coming down. \par The trouble is we are too thoughtful, too calculating. When an appeal is made the first impression is to give a dollar, but we begin to calculate, and before we get the pocket book open it is fifty cents, and by the time the basket reaches us it is a quarter, and we feel sad over that for the rest of the service. \par We have all seen the arrival of bad weather in a church. The sky is clear and the congregation sings lustily until the pastor says, "Your offering will now be taken," and at once a dark cloud, like a Newfoundland fog, settles down upon the whole audience. The way an offering is often taken reminds one of a funeral. Six able bodied young men march up the aisles and stand in front of the pulpit to receive the plates from the pastor. There is about them an air of responsibility and solemnity as profound as if they were receiving a charge from the Bishop. When the coppers have been gathered, the aforesaid young men organize the line of march back by the door, and slowly, sedately, majestically stride down the center aisle, bearing the yellow ore with the care usually bestowed upon a corpse. \par To "spare not" or "grudge not" means to give liberally of our testimonies, our sermons, our tears and our prayers. All that we give away is a good investment, returning with compound interest; all that we hoard up and save will perish forever. The sermon held over from a rainy Sunday until a more auspicious time and a larger audience, will take the dry rot meanwhile and be worthless when sunlight and the people arrive. \par "Fear not." If you wish to be enlarged, you must not be afraid. The fearful and unbelieving, you remember, are classed together in God's Word. Why should we fear what man can do unto us? Thousands are so afraid of what people will say and think that they seldom have a right royal goodtime in their souls. Many a presiding elder never gets free from fear of the Bishop, hundreds of pastors live in dread of the elder, and myriads of church members tremble at the voice of the pastor. What a chain of nonsensical bondage. Held and clamped by each other, these poor souls shrink and dwindle each day. We should not be afraid of fanaticism. Fanaticism is the scarecrow with which Satan frightens the Christian from what God wants him to have. As a matter of fact, there is but very little fanaticism in the world. There is a vast deal of formalism, however, and that is most alarming. There are ten thousand icebergs to one fanatic. There are ten thousand brakemen to one fireman. God send us Holy Ghost stokers! If you want to be enlarged do not close all the dampers of your soul, but open the direct draft, throw the throttle wide open and proceed to shoveling coal. \par Do not get nervous over sidetracks. You can never enjoy a ride if you are always afraid of leaving the main line and wrecking your train on a switch. Trust the Holy Ghost, read your Bible assiduously, and let your engine fairly fly. This monotonous cry about "sidetracks "has become what the gaming world call "a chestnut." \par We all remember the thrilling incident in the reader about the boy who tended sheep and cried "Wolf!" We have been listening to the "wolf'' cry for some time, and we never hear it now but a smile is provoked. But the laughable part, after all, is the fact that divine healing and Jesus' return are designated as "sidetracks." One can not refrain from amusement when he observes the vociferous bellowings of these well-meaning people, for one recalls that for three years Jesus was ''sidetracked,'' as they would call it, for He healed everywhere; and the apostles left the main line, for they healed the sick folk; and the illustrious saints of all ages have landed in the ditch, for they have believed in and experienced healing. \par Paul was looking for Jesus, notwithstanding the falsifications of his detractors, and the early church looked for Christ's return every day. O that we may believe God! Send us, O Lord! a race of moral heroes who will dare to preach a full and rounded out gospel. Lengthen the cords." Launch out into the deep. Stop paddling around shore with one oar. "One-oared" people go round in a circle. Many people do just that. Years ago they were sanctified and they have been dancing up and down in a peck measure ever since. Sanctification as an experience is not the end but the beginning. There are leagues and leagues beyond the Jordan crossing. Take the Lord for your circumstances, for your difficulties, for your business, for your burdens, for your trials, for your sicknesses, for your temptations, for all your needs. Attempt some exploration expeditions to the interior of the land of Canaan. "Stir up the gift of God that is in thee." Walk in all the light God gives you. Throw yourself into the service of God without reserve. They are rescuing men from a burning building. The ladder is just a little short and the daring fireman stands on the topmost round, thus adding his own height to the length of the ladder. The men climb down over his body and are saved. We must be willing that men shall climb over us, walk over us or ride roughshod over us, if by such action we can manifest the spirit of Christ. David said, "Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads, thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place." \par "Strengthen the stakes." How? Drive them home on your knees. Make them secure in closet prayer. John Eliott said that when he had an excess of work and a multiplicity of trials he used an engine of which the world knew nothing. It was the engine of prayer. Put down a peg and pray until it holds. \par We ought to strengthen our stakes by confirming and solidifying our faith in the Bible, for it is the Word of God. When we believe it with all our souls we hang our life and salvation upon our certainty of its veracity. \par One great hindrance to spiritual enlargement is our conservatism. We are wedded to our old wheel ruts, and find it difficult to leave them even for a better road. Your chariot has rolled along the old track with unchanging monotony until the law of habit makes enlargement almost impossible. Our love of what we call "propriety," "regularity " and ''system," must go, for the Holy Ghost will not operate by our rules and regulations. It is time we were beyond the conventionalities of culture and the observation of what "they say". All great movements begin in great ideas. There is no progress without fresh, vital thought. China is the same for three thousand years because her teacher is dead. If China should listen to the voice of America calling across the Pacific, she would be rejuvenated and revolutionized in a few years. We, too, must have larger conceptions of God's promises and a larger appreciation of the magnitude of our inheritance. The tendency of the age is toward ease and quiet and rest. But God wants to push us out of our drowsy nest into the great beyond, into a larger place. \par We need a larger love. The world is dying today for pure, holy, sweet, humble love. Men need flowers and sunshine and kind words while they live. Bouquets and wreaths and crosses from the florist's on the casket or grave are worthless; smiles and cheer and encouragement during life are invaluable. \par We need a larger faith; a faith that will grasp the fullness of God's great promises, a faith that will rise to the level of every emergency. A larger joy is needed; a joy that will not only rejoice in the gifts of God, but will rejoice in God Himself, and find in Him our portion and boundless, everlasting delight. Can we not "count it all joy '' when in divers temptations, as saith the Scripture? Can we not "rejoice evermore"? \par We need a larger work. We are too narrow in our interests and in our prayers. We may not be able to devote ourselves to but one thing, but we should feel interest in and sympathy for every good work. In this way we can "abound toward every good work." By way of the throne we should be in touch with all lands and all Christian enterprises. We must not reject or complain at God's method of enlarging us or our work. The disciples were literally pushed out of Jerusalem and sent flying into all the world. God saw that a "dispersion" would be beneficial. "As an eagle stirreth up her nest." Thus God often stirs us up and makes our field larger and more productive. We come into most blessed places which we would never have seen but for the persecution which served to crack the shell and let us out. \par We ought to have a larger hope. The best men of all churches are on tiptoe with an upturned gaze. Our Lord is coming again; let us look for Him. "Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly." In conclusion, let us notice that no weapon formed against us shall prosper. There is no weapon more cutting than the tongue -- lying tongues, deceptive tongues, slanderous tongues. But God will paralyze every tongue and wither every hand that is uplifted against "the Lord's anointed." "Not any man shall be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life." "The battle is not yours, but God's!" Glory ! Hallelujah, and Amen! \cf2\lang1033 \cf0 \par \pard\cf2\lang2058\par } for us. Thousands of professed Christians expect but little and are not disappointed. \par Let us notice the context. In it, and in many other scriptures, we are taught that it is a law of grace that the more we give away, the more we have. This is contrary to all human precedent and reasoning. The world says: "If you want to be rich, save all you get and get all you can." God says:" Go sell all that thou hast and give to the poor." "But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." "God loveth a cheerful giver." Dr. A. J. Gordon, of Boston, said that a literal translation of this text is, "God loveth a hilarious giver." Just think of a man giving and then shouting happy at the same time! Imagine a man in holy glee pouring his money out to God! \par A farmer goes out to sow his grain. In some of our fertile valleys if he sows three bushels to the acre he will reap sixty or seventy, but if he grudges the grain and sows stingily he will reap but half a crop. "So he that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly." God's thought and plan is to water this great, dry, famishing world through the pipes, tubes, and faucets of our hearts, lips, and hands. He does not want reservoirs but channels. \par God is able. Stop and reflect on that word "able." Sister, you may write it over all your difficulties. You may pen it across all your disappointments, you may inscribe it over all your fears, you may post it over all your doubts and troubles. Brother, carve it into your counter, hang it over your work bench, weave it into your business. Take the brush of faith, my friend, and paint it over your sewing machine, cook stove or wash tub, over the sick bed of your loved one. Stretch it like a bow across the darkest cloud that ever threatens your way. "GOD IS ABLE." \par God is not only able to help, but He is able always. It is true that He is able when money is plenty, friends are numerous, stock is rising, your situation is sure, the family is well, the sun is shining, the birds are warbling, and the flowers are blooming; but, thank God, He is ALSO able when money is gone, stock is worthless, friends are cold, and the heavens are black with disappointment. God is able ALWAYS. \par Look at that old eagle sitting high on the crag watching with keen eye the approaching storm. The lowering clouds are darkening the heavens, the lightnings are flashing and the thunders are rumbling. She turns her eye to the sun, for she is the bird of the sun and beholds it disappear behind an angry cloud. Still she does not move. She waits until the storm is almost upon her, then suddenly she utters a shrill scream, spreads her pinions, turns her breast full to the storm, and, as it rages, mounts higher on the crest of the tempest until she is above the clouds, up where the sun shines and all is serene. Instead of fleeing from trouble or succumbing to opposition let us throw our breasts full to the storm. God is able to make all grace abound and cause the very thing which threatened our destruction bear us up and up and on until we are in the very face of the sun. \par The word "abound " is worthy of our consideration. It means to run over, all you want and can use and then some to give away. It means "full, heaped up, pressed down, shaken together, and then running over." \par The writer once lived just across the street from an academy building out of which four or five hundred children were let each afternoon at four o'clock. They were expected to come out in order. Everyone who failed to observe the rule until he had left the grounds must go back and settle with the instructor. Every now and then one would break rank until a score perhaps returned for reprimanding. Who were they? They were the healthiest boys in school; they had abounding life. They could not be made to go by rule. When you get filled with the Holy Ghost you are spoiled for formal and set rules. People will cry "Discipline" at you, but almost unconsciously you will overstep the bounds and shock the sticklers for law. \par There are people who never cross the threshold of my home without blessing it. They leave a fragrance behind them. There are others who call who relieve me by their departure. You have had people in your house that cursed it with their gossip and twaddle; others have come who are so filled with the Spirit that you felt their good influence for days after they were gone \par People generally seem to understand that we should abound; they seem to feel that there ought to be something spontaneous about our holy Christianity. When churches lose their spirituality and spontaneity they begin to look about for a substitute. When we Quakers lost the song out of our souls and the oracle out of our "heart," not believing in a paid choir nor a hireling ministry, we sat down in silence, hats on and hands clasped. When other churches backslide they go into the market and buy canaries and an orator, and put the former on their perches and the latter in his box and say 'Go to, now; do ye entertain us this day. But when the church has been filled with the Holy Ghost she never lets out the privilege of preaching and singing. She does her own worshipping, and brings heaven to earth. \par We have recently heard of one of the most modern of pulpit attractions A minister in New England city has had a small fountain constructed just in front of his pulpit. While he is reading his little lackadaisical sermonette on Sunday morning the fountain is sending up a beautiful stream, symbolic of what should be in that and every other pulpit in the land. The minister was dimly conscious that there ought to be a spring or a fountain somewhere, and since he saw none in the pew and knew of none in the pulpit, he had one placed between the two. \par It is after God has abounded toward us that we "abound unto every good work." We must get filled up from God before we can be full for every good cause. This fullness removes from us the tendency to be interested in nothing but our own concerns. \par O how full the Scriptures are of an abounding gospel! Surely God hath abounded toward us in grace "exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think." For we are to abound in "faith" and "abound in thanksgiving" and "abound in joy" that our "rejoicing may be abundant." Yea, our "love" is to "abound more and more," and we are to "abound in pleasing God" and in "liberality" and in "hope." And if these things "are in us and abound they make us that we shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." "For so an entrance shall be administered unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." \par Brethren, let us come in at last with flags and pennants flying, all sails swelling in the breeze of heaven, and anchor our crafts in the harbor of our eternal home!* \cf2\lang1033 \cf0 \par \cf2\lang2058\par } ^^ 7Y11 Abundant Resources{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 Abundant Resources \b0 \par \fs22 "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work "(\cf1\ul 2Co_9:8\cf0\ulnone ). \par We have a perfect right to look for and expect the operations of the superhuman and divine in the arena of human affairs. If our expectations in this direction were greater, it would be far betterr need, we ought to possess it; and if there is such a thing as being a "conqueror," yea, "more than conqueror," we can not afford to come short of it. We ought to know tonight what it means. After a careful study of the Word of God we are thoroughly convinced that to be "more than conqueror" means, first, a decisive victory at home, in our own heart, and our own life, and the narrow limits of our own domestic or social circle. There are a great many people who continue to leave the question as to their final victory so open as to invite the enemy to make another attack. There is such uncertainty in many minds as to their ultimate success that the enemy has great encouragement to recollect his forces and come again. \par To be more than conqueror means to get a victory that settles something permanently; a Gettysburg, a Waterloo, a Sebastopol, a certain, indubitable victory that fixes something so it will stay fixed. When we get this victory, we say "No" to Satan so loud that it rings through every corridor of hell and lets all the devils know that they are defeated and that we are triumphant. When this occurs Satan is not everlastingly renewing his attack at the same point. Do you know that a real Christian's trials and testings ought to be new ones, and that he ought not to be fighting the same battle again and again? Today we ought to get a victory that will settle things, so that when Satan comes again he will have to attack us from another quarter and with some new scheme. \par There is something radically wrong when a Christian's temptations are the same again and again. It is possible for us to have a victory, and have it so the devil will know it, and have it so the angels will know it, and have it so that the folks in this country will know it, and we will know it, and it will be no longer an open question, no longer an inducement to Satan to come again with rallied forces. Great God, give us something that is fixed! He wants to do it. It is His will tonight. \par A decisive victory would settle it in our thought as to whether we are going to get through or not. A great question with thousands of people today is as to the final outcome of this whole thing. I admit it is important. It is one thing for a vessel to throw off her lines, spread her spotless canvas to the wind with all her flags flying, and sail proudly out of the harbor, but it is another thing for her to meet the raging tempests and set her prow across the rolling billows and successfully ride the high sea and come safely into port. It is one thing for a man to be converted, to be gloriously converted, to throw off the lines and restraint of sin, to spread his canvas to the wind and with hopes and flags flying high, sail out in the time of a series of meetings, and it is another thing for him to meet the storms of next week and the raging billows of next month, and the blackness and darkness of the awful nights that may come in January and February or in the stormy month of March. It is another thing for him to meet these trials and testings and come finally in, not like an old battered ship with her sails all torn away, drawn by a tug, but with flags and pennants flying come sweeping into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ with "an abundant entrance." \par If God has provided a gospel that will settle us well, He has provided grace that will keep us settled. If He has provided a salvation that will give us a victory today, He has grace enough to run us up across next week and over the trials and difficulties of next month, and on and up forever; and He has grace enough to carry us over the Alleghenies, and over the Rockies, and over the Alps, and over the Milky Way, and run us into heaven. God help us to believe it, and expect it, instead of fixing a place to fall. \par Again, beloved, to be more than conqueror means to get a victory from which we derive benefit and help to qualify us and fit us for future encouragement. It is one thing to chase the enemy, and it is another to capture him and bring him back and make him fight in our ranks. To be conqueror is to fight the devil and defeat him, but to be more than conqueror is to capture him and make him act as slave for us. \par Most Christians feel satisfied if they succeed in chasing the enemy, but God clearly teaches us that we are not only to chase our enemies, but we are to overtake them, and we are to capture men from the ranks of the devil and bring them back to the Cross and have the devils cast out and angels put in, and make saints out of sinners and warriors for God out of men that have been possessed of the devil. We are never more than conquerors until we have power enough to do that very thing. \par There are some victories that come to us that are overwhelming, then there are victories that cost almost as much as defeat. There are victories in military life that cost almost as much as defeats. A few more such would ruin the victorious party. There are other victories that are so sweeping and so tremendous and so overwhelming that every one is filled with hope and gratitude. So it is with Christian experience. You may gain a victory over Satan, and yet feel so reduced and weak and "tuckered out" when you get through that you will not be fit for another fight for a longtime. \par The text talks about something that is not only victory, but is more than mere victory. It is victory with some left; so that we overcome with resources in store; so that we defeat the devil with grace enough to defeat another devil. This gospel is big enough, and this grace is extensive enough not only to defeat the devils existing, but if there were a million times as many devils as there are, it would defeat them all. \par God has grace enough for His people, if they will only accept it, to accomplish the impossible things as well as the improbable things. To be more than conquerors means to do just that. It is a wonderful thing to be a conqueror, but it is a much more wonderful thing to be ''more than conqueror." \par David was more than conqueror when he went against the giant with five rounds of ammunition, and slew the giant with one round and came back with four rounds of ammunition left, ready for four more giants. You would probably have fired every round of ammunition you had, and felt good if you downed the giant the last shot, but David felled him the first time. That was "more than conqueror." That was conquering with something left, but the most of folks when they conquer have nothing left; when they conquer the are so weak that they would not like to enter into another engagement at once. God means for us to conquer with enough left for another fight right away. \par I remember that when Paul and Silas were in jail they not only got out themselves but they took the other fellows out. That was "more than conqueror." Most of people when they get in jail are glad to get out themselves and do not think about the other folks; but Paul and Silas sang and prayed until the old prison shook and the doors opened and the prisoners were out. \par When you and I get the blessing I am talking about tonight, we can afford to go into jail to get some one out. I never go into jail unless I bring some one out with me. God lets me get into some very close quarters at times, but when He takes me out He takes some one else out with me. It is time we had a salvation that would make us sing at midnight in jail, not so much because we are in there, as because the other fellows are going to get out, and God has honored us with the privilege of being turnkey that we may liberate the prisoners. That is more than conqueror. \par Daniel was a conqueror when he slept with the lions. It takes great victory of spirit to sleep with lions. Most Christians would sit up and watch the lions. They would say we were told to "watch." Daniel was much "more than conqueror" when he came out. The Hebrew children were conquerors when they could walk in the fire and not be burned, but they were much "more than conquerors " when the Son of God walked with them in the flames and they came out to conquer unbelief and make devils gnash their teeth in powerless rage and go back to hell where they came from. \par God in heaven save us from this little two-by-four religion that we have. Give us something that has a swing to it and that will make other folks swing. Something that has life in it and will give other folks life. It is coming. God is opening our eyes to see that we have not seen much and have not had much nor known much, and when we were sanctified wholly we only topped the reservoir, not exhausted it. God wants to raise up a race of people who will dare to go forward in the face of a regiment of devils. \par Again, to be more than conqueror is to have an experience that gets spoils. When the children of Ammon, the people of Mount Sier, came up against Jehoshaphat he cried to God and God sent a victory so overwhelming that it took Jehoshaphat three days to gather up the spoils. God means that we should have victories all the way along that will give us spoils. \par When the besieged people went out of the city and found that the camp was deserted, Samaria's famine was turned into a great feast in a single day. God means to give us an experience that will send us right out into the famine districts, into the barren wilderness and make it blossom as the rose and convert the famine stricken country into a feast and have all we need. Glory to God! \par Again, to be more than conqueror means to take new territory. Do you know, one of the things that is the matter with the Holiness movement is that it has been trotting around in a peck measure? Do you know that there are thousands of people who have evidently been filled with the Spirit, who are powerless today as folks that never were? Why is this? It is because they have been willing to be confined to the narrow limits of present attainments and have been afraid to launch out and take new territory. To be "more than conqueror" means to take new territory. It means not only the knocking down of the walls of Jericho, but it means the conquering of thirty-one kings in succession. \par There are a great many people who without doubt have been saved, but they are so afraid of being fanatics, or of being extremists, that they have just settled down to testify to being saved at a certain time and sanctified at another certain time, and that is all there is to it. \par But people who know what we are talking about tonight have something added to the first and second experience. I do not mean a third blessing. I do not mean mighty epochs compared with these two, for they are the two mighty epochs in a man's life, Calvary and the furnace of the upper room. But I do mean that if we keep on we will take victory in our bodies. We will take victory in our circumstances. We will take victory over all sorts of things, and we will be daily coming into new places and new experiences and new joys with new views of God and His grace, with extended appreciation of the magnificence of our inheritance in Jesus Christ. They will never find the ashes of our campfires two nights in the same place. If they want to find where we stayed last night they will have to go higher up the hill than where we stayed night before last. If God had an army of real progressive Christians it would not take long to "give this world fits" and carry out the great commission of Jesus Christ, spreading the gospel to all the world. \par The text says "in all these things." What things? Well, the first thing mentioned is under tribulation, and that means "under the harrow." If you have ever been on the farm you know what the harrow is. It is a tool with sharp teeth under which the clods and stones are tumbled and rolled and knocked to pieces. Have you ever been under the harrow? Did you have victory there? Were you more than conqueror in tribulation? Harrowing is a great deal worse than being killed. It is a real luxury to be killed outright, but to be nagged and punched and rolled and tumbled and turned over and over again -- that is tribulation. But "they came up out of great tribulation," and they never came up until they had been "more than conquerors" in it. Unless we have an experience that will keep us sweet when people are poking at us and when they are kicking us and when they are turning us over, we have not got all that God has for us. \par "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? \par Beloved, God means to make us more than conquerors, not only in tribulation, but in distress; in great distress, in awful distress, and if I should stop to refer to instances in the history of the Church, I would call to mind that again and again the saints of God have been more than conquerors in the most trying times. \par Persecution! How do you take persecution, anyway? How do you feel when people persecute you? How do you feel when you hear that some one said a mean thing about you? How do you feel when you know that there are people who desire to injure you and are malicious and underhanded and would do anything in their power to injure you? Are you "more than conqueror"? \par There are very few nowadays who can stand persecution. I have been pained even in the holiness ranks to see that when a man is turned down, there is so much made of it. What if folks do turn me down; I would like to know what better than that I have a right to expect. Why is it we expect to be treated so much better than our Master? God help us to stop all this noise and racket about persecution, and wait until we have something to make a fuss about. God in heaven save us from whimpering and simpering and whining and fretting, and give us grace that will make us triumphant over every power that is brought to bear against us. \par I know there are some that have this blessing. I know some here who have it. I know a man that has just been reading in different papers the awful things that people say about him that ought to try his patience, but it seems to put a jump in him, and I know if God can put a man up on wires so that he will turn into a jumping jack when people say all manner of evil against him, I know that God can make us "more than conquerors" in persecution. It always gives me great courage to see a sample of what God can turn out. O God, multiply these kind of people, for Jesus' sake. \par "And famine." There are a lot of holiness people that freeze up at their mouth and sit down in silence every time they get into a place where there is a "famine," and there are plenty of such places nowadays. One can find a famine in most every city church -- a famine of the gospel, of real soul food, but is that any reason why one should tone down or go into silence and retirement? It is an opportunity to prove that one may be "more than conqueror" in famine. I believe in my soul that a few people loaded down with good, steady Holy Ghost gospel, can turn almost any kind of a famine into a feast. I go into some awfully dry churches sometimes. In New York City sometime ago, when I was on the retired list for a time waiting upon my precious wife, I slipped into a church in that great metropolis. My heart was hungry. I had a great deal to make me hungry, and I wanted some bread. I looked up in the pulpit and there was no bread there. I looked in the pews, and there was no bread there. Then I said, "Well, Lord, you will not fail me, we will eat a little together," and He set the table, put on the linen, arranged the silverware and cut glass and we ate supper together. He brought the supper with Him. When you and I have this experience we can have supper anytime. If the preacher will not feed us we will just let Christ set our own little table and eat and if we can find anyone who can take a piece we will feed them. God make us more than conquerors in famine. There are lots of famines in these days. God give us an experience that will make us like a well of water in a dry place. How dry and hungry people are around us! We do not know how many souls we might water if we had "plenty and to spare." "Nakedness, peril or the sword." You may be astonished at it, but I believe there are more people backsliding today over the question of eating and clothing and the poor house as a final destiny than over any other thing. There were times when Paul did not have scarcely any clothes, but he was "more than conqueror" in nakedness. He never went to making tents until the stingy churches would not pay him, and then he made tents long enough to get him a suit and went on preaching again. But he was just as triumphant when he was making tents as when he was preaching. I want to be like that. I want us to measure up. I see these things are here, and I believe God is letting us come to infinitely greater things than we have yet seen. Shall we possess them? \par "In danger of the sword." How people are threatened nowadays! Threatened in the churches and threatened out of the churches. It is threatened that if you do not stop preaching holiness and testifying to holiness they will put you out of the synagogue. Well, being put out of the synagogue is not so bad, but what we want is victory in our souls when we are put out. Victory in our souls when we have no friends, when there is no one to speak a kind word to us. If we attempt to speak to any one after the meeting, and they seem to be very busy talking to someone else and sort of turn the cold shoulder to us, and do not hardly have time to shake hands with us, we want a salvation that will make us feel so good that we can stop right there and hold a ten days' camp meeting in our souls. \par Beloved, there are awful things that may come to us. I do not know what is coming, but I do know we are living in awful times, and I know the text offers to you and me an experience that will make us something "more than conquerors" in any place this side the flaming gates of an endless hell, and by the grace of God I am determined to go through on that line. One thing I know. We never get this experience until we receive the Holy Ghost, for He alone can fight our battles; He alone can defeat our enemies; He alone can bring in the supplies. If we have not received Him, and do not honor Him, and do not serve Him, we can not hope for success. Have you received the Holy Ghost since you were converted? Preached at Cincinnati, O., December 3, 1898.PRAYER \par Oh, Lord God, we are so glad tonight that a great many of us have received the Holy Ghost and are more than conquerors. He is here tonight in great power, and He is doubtless talking to some hearts that have not yet received Him, and is greatly encouraging and blessing those who have received Him. Thou art getting us ready for greater things. This meeting tonight is calculated to give us some advance in divine things. Lord, give advancement to me. I would not have Thee come and find me short in spirit or power for anything. \par God in heaven, I know Thou hast saved me from all sin. I know Thou hast saved me from all desire for sin. I hate sin; I despise uncleanness, but, O Lord, I know there must be other things on the positive side of this question which I need and ought to have. O Lord, Thou dost not mean for me to preach truth like this and not get something out of it for my own soul. \par O mighty God! make us more than conquerors in every single conflict into which we enter. Bring on the fight. We can not do anything, but we trust Thee to bring it on. This meeting is Thine. Lord God, take care of everything. Here are souls who are hungry, but we can not save them. The only thing which we can do is to give them to Thee. Here are poor, burdened souls who are not happy and will never be happy until they are saved, and we trust them with Thee. If Jesus should come tonight, we are ready. If Jesus should come while we are on our knees here, we are ready. God has saved us and filled us, and we are ready. We wish He would come tonight. We long to see this awful tragedy of sin come to an end. \par Mighty God! Mighty God! have mercy. Men are being damned. Women are being damned. Church members are being damned. Our own friends are going to hell. They tell us positively that they do not care to be saved. God help them! Turn on the power. Let tonight be an awful night for some souls. Let it be glorious to saints and awful to sinners. Lord, we trust Thee. We wait upon Thee. The Christ of Nazareth, we adore Him; the Son of God whom they spat upon; whom they crucified. They mocked Him with a crown of thorns, but we worship Him tonight. They pierced His side, and from it came forth blessing and salvation; we worship Him, we adore Him. We want the universe to know that we bow at His feet; that we look up into His face and see everything that is nearest and dearest to us. Heaven would not be heaven without Him. Earth would be hell without Him. In His name we pray. Amen, and amen! \cf2\lang3082 \cf0 \par \pard\cf2\lang2058\par }  ;12 More than Conquerors{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 More than Conquerors \b0 \par \fs22 "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (\cf1\ul Rom_8:37\cf0\ulnone ). \par It is a tremendous thing to be a conqueror in all the conflicts of the holy war, but it is vastly greater to be "more than conqueror in all these things." \par There are a great many of God's own people who are terribly chagrined again and again by at least temporary defeat. If God has provided for a life of victory, a life of perfect triumph, we ought to know it; and if the Atonement made on the Cross provided a salvation that is as big as all oumaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy" (\cf1\ul Act_3:16-18\cf0\ulnone ) \par These are the words of the Apostle of Pentecost, repeating the prophecy of Joel, which foretold the wonderful event of Pentecost. Especially do we call attention this afternoon to the fact that the descent of the Holy Spirit, the advent of the third Person of the Trinity into this world, results immediately in the preaching of the gospel of the Son of God. As a result of the outpouring of the Spirit, the sons and daughters and servants and handmaidens prophesied. That word "prophesy" is very frequently misunderstood. The original word means "to bubble " or "to shout" or "to run over like an artesian well." Prophecy is referred to in the text we have read, as something to which all of God's people are called, for a careful study of the Word of God reveals the fact that it covers all phases of practical gospel preaching. Preaching is not preaching that does not "bubble"; that does not "spring up." Preaching is not preaching that is worked up; it must bubble up or spring up like an artesian well, to meet the New Testament standard. \par We have searched the Word of God in vain to find a single trace of what is known as modern sermonizing. We can find where men, women and sons and daughters preached, but we find no trace of an attempt at sermonizing, a systematic presentation of what some people call "truth." The greatest sermons the apostles ever preached were very largely from their own experience. From the day of Pentecost to this hour, when men have preached "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," it has been with a holy recklessness and freedom from any sort of manmade or human system that would put a man in bondage. \par The fact is, God has called all of His children in these days to prophesy in some way, and Pentecostal preaching is that reckless, free expression of what God has done in the heart, that cannot be put under bands and will not work in harness. There were one hundred and twenty men and women, but they all began to speak, they all began to prophesy; the sons and the daughters and the handmaidens and the servants began to prophesy; they told out or let out what God had put in. That is all Paul did when he was arraigned before the council; he just turned the faucet and let the thing flow. There are a great many people who have a very false idea of what it is to preach, and there are many people sitting back and excusing themselves, saying they are not called to preach, or they are not called to talk, who ought to be up and at it. \par I have a concern in my soul for the sisters in the church. Thousands are making a most lamentable mistake in waiting for some human recognition. Beloved, when we swing back to Pentecost we can not wait for the ordination of any man. We can not wait for human recognition. We can not wait for the backslidden church to get ready to ordain us. We have got to preach because God puts it in us and we must give expression to it. \par What are we to preach? Beloved, if we are going to preach, we must preach that which God bids us. We are not called upon to preach science or philosophy, nor are we called to advance social schemes or theories about higher education. We are not called to do a thousand and one things that the Church has turned aside to do, but we are called to preach the gospel of the Son of God, regeneration for sinners, the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire for believers, that men may know holiness of heart and holiness of life: that men may be redeemed from sin and be brought to a place where they can know God and enjoy Him forever. God save us from modern preaching and swing us back to Pentecost! \par The average preacher is preaching his way to hell, and thousands of church members hold church membership, and it will do them no more good than simply to give them a passport to the regions of the damned. All over this country people are calling for and receiving something that is human; something that is concocted in the study, something that comes upon the plane of human intellection, when God has commanded us to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." It is an appalling fact that some awful stuff is poured forth from the pulpits of many of our churches. No one who knows me can properly understand me to tirade or abuse any one; but, sir, if to know the facts is to be oppressed with a great burden, I dare to tell the facts that our people may get under a living concern and that the Church may be redeemed from the fallacy of this latter-day preaching. Lord, give us something out of the skies that will save men from an endless hell. \par What do we want to preach? We do not want to preach ourselves; we want to stop that sort of thing, every one of us. It would be a good thing if we would stop testifying with a perpendicular pronoun "I" six and a half feet high at the head of our testimony. It would be a good thing if we would change things and put the Son of God to the front, and instead of saying "I am sanctified," and "I am this and I am that," if we would say "He sanctifies me wholly." If we would keep Him to the front, people would understand things better. The tendency everywhere in these days is to relegate God to the rear and promote man and bring him to the front, and the devil is helping us to do it. He wants preachers and laymen and everyone else to keep themselves to the front and leave God out. We can't afford to do that. We must preach Jesus. \par We must preach the cross. I know there is some reproach connected with it, but I know that for a man who shares the reproach without complaint there is a tremendous reward. There is some persecution, but it is little compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. We are called to preach "Jesus Christ and Him crucified"; salvation for the sinner from his record and salvation for the saint from what he is that he may be filled with the Holy Ghost. \par The fulfillment of the words of our text gives us victory; gives us success; insures success. How is it that all over this country men are complaining of defeat? How is it that men are mortified and say they are deeply pained that they can not have a revival? Do you know it is just as easy to have a revival this afternoon as it was eighteen centuries ago? Do you know a revival is sure to follow certain conditions, as surely as God is God, and truth is truth? \par The reason we do not have a revival is because we do not preach with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. We need a regular Mississippi to sweep over us and carry away a whole lot of trash and give us an eternal victory. Many a man "preaches well." He is "logical," he is a "systematic thinker," he has a "delightful delivery," the people are "held in admiration," and they are free to express it, but no one gets saved! Another man comes along with no new truth, very little system and a great many objectionable features in the way he presents the unvarnished truth, and the fastidious are offended, but they get converted, and the backslidden church members are enraged, but they are shown that they are out of harmony with God, and the result is that a great and lasting revival breaks out! What is the difference? One man preached and he depended on brains and human education, and the other man preached the truth and depended on the Holy Ghost. A very popular evangelist said some time ago at the close of a fruitless series of meetings: "I can not understand it. I preached this same series of sermons in a certain city in the very same order, and there were two hundred converted." He ought to know that the Holy Ghost does not go according to order. He does not go by rule! One time the man preached and depended on the Spirit, and the Spirit honored the truth. The other time he depended on a systematic presentation of the truth he had preached somewhere else, and the Holy Ghost retired and did not honor it. Many a time He retires and does not honor our efforts because we try to repeat something we have preached somewhere else. \par Many a preacher preaches well. He is entirely orthodox, but he does no good. Why? Well, because he is so immersed in his own ideas that my text fulfilled would fill him with dismay. Do you know that we have fallen upon times when things that can not be understood are not only denounced and decried, but people are afraid of anything like the supernatural. They are afraid of being fanatical. God in heaven help us! \par The valley of the Nile has been famous for its fertility for thousands of years. This fertility is owing to the annual overflow. If it stayed within its banks it would serve for all the purposes of navigation, but the soil would not bring forth food, and a famine would follow. A man can not go through a round of duties simply, and yet accomplish much for God. But if he could have a freshet in his soul men could get bread from him; there would be food in God's house for the people. Lord, run us over! \par The freedom from excitement that is so complimented by the world, and is so generally characteristic of the church, will never bring us a harvest of souls. We must get more reckless and more ready to preach and pray and sing and shout, regardless of what people say about us. When we get there, it will make but little difference whether people have been "ordained" or not. It will make but little difference whether you have ever had a bishop's hands on your head or not, if you get the Holy Ghost on you. If you receive the unction of the Holy One you will preach and have converts and victory, and God's name will be glorified, and Pentecost will return. \par When people receive the Holy Ghost a little child can have a revival. A little child has a revival many a time when the preacher can not. Many a revival comes to a church when it is not the preacher who is to blame for it. It is some child or some "cranky old woman" who shouts her bonnet clear over to the wrong side of her head, but who knows how to pray and wait on God until the skies part and victory comes. There is going to be a great change after a while, and many a tall fellow is coming down and many an insignificant person is going up. When the judgment is set there will be such a changing of things as will astonish many a tall-hatted preacher and many an elder, and many obscure souls who are God's valiants but who will not even remember when they did anything extraordinary. It was all recorded, and they remember it up there. \par O, the blessed results of the pouring out of the Spirit. The man of weakness becomes a man of power; the woman of timidity and bashfulness becomes a steady-voiced witness to the work of God in her heart. Do you remember the account of the sanctification of Jacob? Do you recall how the blessing the Lord bestowed upon him on the bank of the brook Jabbok transformed his whole nature and life? \par Years before there had been estrangement between Jacob and his brother Esau, and now as Jacob starts home from his sojourn with Laban, his father-in-law, he learns that his angry brother is coming to meet him with an armed host. Ah, how fearful is the heart of Jacob! How his courage flees! In his desperation he calls earnestly upon God: "Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear lest he will come and smite the mother with the children." Then the Lord comes and seeks to break his will and get him to a place of complete consecration. At last he yields and confesses that his name is Jacob (Supplanter). Now the blessing comes, and the Lord says, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel (a Prince of God), for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men and hast prevailed." \par How different is the life of the man henceforth. Esau is conquered by merely meeting his brother. Peace is made at once without a particle of bloodshed. Henceforth the life of Jacob is changed and made blessedly powerful. \par Peniel corresponds to Pentecost and gives us power with God and with men. My fellow preacher, do you want your words to have effect when you preach? Do you want men to quail and tremble and turn to God? Then get power with God, the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and power with men will naturally flow from it. \par It was this baptism, this anointing, that made Caughey a red hot revivalist. Before it came he was weak like any ordinary preacher, but no sooner was the Spirit poured out than he became a messenger from God, whose words shook men's hearts as the wind shakes the leaves. \par Nothing else than this anointing with the Holy Ghost would ever have made a soul winner out of Sammy Morris, the Kru boy. He was ignorant, unlearned, and only a short time out of the jungles, but on the night of his arrival in New York seventeen men were brought to the feet of the Savior through his instrumentality. It is a wonderful power that can take a poor heathen lad and make of him a more successful soul saver than white-haired clergymen who have been in training for scores of years. What is this power? It is the power of Pentecost; the power of the anointing of which Joel speaks. \par Do you know it is a burning shame the way the Holy Ghost is neglected in these days? No man is fit to minister God's Word until he has had this holy anointing with the Holy Ghost. Yet men are seeking every other equipment but this absolutely necessary one. What is Hebrew? What is elocution? What is sociology? What is rhetoric? Can these things put a mysterious power on men's souls and make them yield to God? Can these things make men weep for sin? No; only the Pentecostal baptism will do this. \par It is alarming how men turn away from the ministry. Eight hundred ministers left the work of preaching last year and went into the practice of law or the work of journalism or some other work to which God had not called them. \par There is no nobler, more blessed work than that of preaching for Christ to never dying souls. The reason some men shirk it and forsake it is because they have not had the preparation for it, viz.: the enduement with the Spirit. He who has had his Pentecost would rather preach than eat, and he would preach if he had to hire people to listen to him. \par Is there some one here who feels that his or her talents are small and yet there is a desire in the heart to preach? Let me tell you God is as glad to get you as he is the college graduate. It was to John, the untutored, and not to Paul, the pupil of Gamaliel, that the apocalypse was given, and God will give as much success and as clear a revelation of Himself to the man of meager gifts as to the one of more extraordinary talents. \par We forget, sir, that if some one receives the Holy Ghost it means the conversion of sinners, and we forget that if Christians are filled with the Holy Ghost they can touch a button that will turn on a current from the upper skies until men will come tottering to the feet of Jesus Christ. If you receive the Holy Ghost you can preach; you need no man to ordain you. Our boys and our girl sought to preach, and I am here with a message to tell you to preach. \par At all hazards, preach! You say, "I am nothing, I can do nothing." Well, God bless you, let the thing go for nothing, and let God have a chance. All He wants is a shepherd's sling or a ram's horn. All He needs to confuse the Midianites and have victory is just a three-cent loaf of barley meal to tumble down into the camp. If God could get a chance at holiness people here, you would not have to be ashamed of holiness in Cincinnati; it would go through these streets and through these alleys like the Mississippi goes through the valley when she is on a tear, clearing away rubbish and sweeping away obstacles. When you get the Holy Ghost you will not have to apologize for holiness. It will make its own impression on people. God bless you, it will defend itself. \par The reason we have to "defend holiness" is because we have not got the pure article on hand. When the fire jumped out of heaven at Carmel it scattered unbelief, and when fire comes on you unbelief hides its accursed head in everlasting shame, and God's people take on an air of victory and courage and strength that frightens the devil. God save us from this "holiness" that has to be apologized for! You hold a ten days' meeting and spend all your time apologizing for holiness, and wonder why the meeting is a failure! I for one am not going to any field and suffer defeat. Not until I know they are bankrupt in heaven and until there is no more power in the throne, will I ever suffer defeat on my field. Cincinnati is a hard enough field, but God stretched people out here on this floor last night as if they were ready for the coffin. God saved people here at this altar as if it was an easy field. It is time we got through our talk about "gospel hardened" fields. There are milk and water surfeited fields. There are places where they have preached nonsense until people are tired of it, but I tell you there is an awful dearth of the real gospel. Real Holy Ghost preaching will succeed anywhere and everywhere. \par We demand success of everyone else but preachers and Christians, and why do we not demand success of them? We have no time, life is too short, eternity is too long, hell is too awful, and sin is too damning, for us to employ men who do not have converts. We can have success. A child preaches and prays and sings in the Holy Ghost and people weep and laugh and shout and get converted, and no one seems to be responsible for it. Over there is a man with all logic and eloquence and a system of orthodox truth who does his very best and every one seems to be interested, but no one is converted; but yonder is an old man who has not much more than half sense, but he is filled with the Spirit, and he gets up and utters a few words and the whole audience takes fire. You have heard some one sing, -- how beautifully they sang! How the people  admired it and how beautiful that voice was, but no one was saved. There was, however, an old black woman who sang in the Holy Ghost and the whole audience wept. \par God in heaven give us something that will moisten people's eyes. In these days, when everything is dry, we need something that will touch people's hearts. The fire of the Holy Ghost will do it. Many a preacher has had more converts in a single week after he received his Pentecost than he had in ten years' preaching before. James Caughey was an ordinary preacher until he was sanctified wholly, and then he ran like a blaze of fire all over England and all over America, and myriads of people were converted to God. We have lots of ordinary preachers today who would be extraordinary preachers if they were filled with the Holy Ghost. We have lots of preachers who are extraordinary in their own eyes who if sanctified would be very ordinary in their own sight, but they would have a great deal more success than they are having. \par I n conclusion, I want to say that the call of God is upon us. I do not know whether I will ever come to Cincinnati again or not, but if I do, and find you people sitting around in the same nest you are in now, I will find you backslidden from God. I might just as well deal plainly with you. We can not feather our nest and settle down and take care of ourselves, and retain our experience. We must "preach it and pray it and sing it and shout it." We must go to every house, we must go to the cellars and garrets; we must go among the wharves along the river; we must go everywhere and carry the gospel of the Son of God. You can preach the gospel with your mouth and with your money and in your business. You can preach it in a great many ways if you have God with you. I notice when people have received the Holy Ghost they are looking out for ways to spread the truth. A colored man went from these meetings to one of the hotels last night and brought a stranger down here, and God brought him to the altar and  saved him. He had come all the way from Detroit down here on purpose to get this salvation, and he did not know what he had come for. And the colored man was the means of bringing him to God. \par If we get this blessing we will preach it some way. There is one way in which we can all preach it. When God called me out of a delightful pastorate and a lovely home and a salary of sixteen hundred dollars, and I laid it all down without the promise of a dollar, and agreed to live in a trunk from January to January, He put in my soul the burning desire to get this message to the greatest possible number of people. So He impressed me that I could preach it and write it and give it away and circulate it in holiness books and holiness literature. All over this country He has blessed me in giving away books and papers and scattering this gospel. Any one can preach the gospel thus, and yet people sit around and say, "I do not know how I can do it." You can do it by buying books and giving them away. You can  do it by taking a paper and giving it to other people. You can do it by sending the gospel to your unsanctified pastor, and your unsanctified brothers and sisters. \par The time is coming when we must invest money in things that will go for something in the upper skies. The time is here when we must give some thought to things that will never die. If we do not we are going to get lean in our souls. I know people who are just ready to dry up and blow away simply because they have failed to keep step with God in spreading the truth. In fact, until we come to the place where we are ready to give out everything that God puts in us, we can not hope to prosper. God help us this afternoon to spread this gospel; to preach it in every way possible. My concern this afternoon is that people may receive the Holy Ghost. My concern is that people may receive the Spirit who will make them prophesy. I know of girls, servant girls, who are prophesying in such a way as to astonish angels. \par I know a girl who received the Holy Ghost and she could hardly speak a word of plain English, and her worldly mistress and her husband got under awful conviction, and they did not know what they would do. One morning they were at the breakfast table. There was a lovely breakfast, but they could not eat it. They did not ordinarily have much use for Mary in the dining room, but that morning they had to have Mary. They could not think of any one else who knew how to teach them and they sent for her -- she was frying batter cakes in the kitchen, and she came in and was enabled to lead those people to Jesus Christ. You can be so full of salvation when you are frying batter cakes that folks will send for you. You can be so full of salvation when you are blacking a man's boots that he will want you to tell him about salvation. If people had the Holy Ghost they could scatter this fire everywhere. God help us to receive Him. Cincinnati, O., Afternoon of Dec. 5, 1898 \cf2\lang1033 \cf0 \par \cf2\lang2058\par } o+C13 This is That{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 This is That \b0 \par \fs22 "But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handing God resumed on Mt. Zion. \par It was therefore a proper question for David to ask: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?" for, if the ark of God was to return and the worship of the living God was to be resumed, someone must go into the presence of the King; someone must be fit to stand in the presence of the Lord of Lords and King of Kings and act as priest and servant. So the inspired Psalmist cries out: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?" \par What kind of a man is fit to go into the immediate presence of the King and stay? Who has the qualifications for this ministry? The inspired answer is, "He that hath clean hands and a pure heart." We want to notice briefly, first, the holy place, and then the conditions necessary to gain admittance into that place. The holy place was the place where God came and revealed His will and communed with His people. It was the place where He was constantly present, and where He talked with those who ministered. The "holy place "of the old dispensation stands for "the state of holiness" under the new. A careful study of the Word of God teaches us clearly that just as the presence of God was known in the holy place, the immediate and constant presence of God is known today by those who are in the place of holiness, or who have entered into the experience of entire sanctification, where a clean heart is the normal condition and the Holy Ghost constantly abides. The first thing we want to notice about this place is that it is a place of honor. For one to get into the immediate presence of the King of Heaven is to get into a place of great honor. It is always considered an honor to get into the presence of an earthly king. Men go long distances to get to shake hands with the chief executive of their country. People feel highly honored to be permitted to stand for a moment in the presence of royalty, or even in the presence of the statesmen of our own country. I remember of standing for two hours waiting to shake hands with President McKinley. I felt like a fool for doing it, but there is something in us that respects and honors people in position. But, sir, the only true honor is in getting into the presence of the King of Heaven, and not only shaking hands with Him, but living in the immediate presence of the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, the Chief Executive of the Universe, who made all things and by whose power all things are upheld. \par We feel that we are highly honored to get into this holy place. There are those who so magnify the reproach that is connected with holiness that they do not consider it much of an honor to get to be with the King. In fact, if we were to judge from their conduct, they seem to be very much embarrassed when they are in the presence of those who are out and out for God and who are sanctified wholly. But some of us were over all this a long time since. We have come to know that to get into the presence of God is the highest honor that is ever paid to a human soul this side the gates of glory, and that to be cleansed from all unrighteousness and saved from all sin, to be filled with the Holy Ghost, to be permitted to live in the constant presence of the King of Kings, yea, to have royal blood and put on purple, and sit at the King's table, are privileges beyond calculation. Despised, decried and rejected as they are, the lay people are our folks, and we are inclined to exult over the fact that we have the honor of belonging to the band. Beloved, you need not feel ashamed of us. You need not feel ashamed that you are in this crowd. Of course, if you have fallen in with a set of frauds, people who do not practice what they preach; if you have made a mistake and are in bad company, it may be well enough to break company with them; but, sir, the holy few, who dare to go through and who think more of walking with the King of Heaven than they do of the honors of this earth; who care more for the smile of Heaven than they do for the compliments of earth, are the best company you can have in this world. \par For those of us who have entered in, you need make no apology, you need make no excuse, you need never feel embarrassment, we are perfectly at home and satisfied. If you have any sympathy to bestow, please bestow it on the other fellow. We have gained admittance into the presence of the King, and we want no excuses. We have gained the highest honor that is bestowed. We have gained admission into the holy place. There are people who are ashamed of it, but they are the "non-possessors." \par People who hang on the outskirts of a holiness meeting, and come to get a crumb because everything is withered and dried up where they came from, and are ashamed to have it known they "were down at the hall," have never struck what we are talking about tonight. When you get in the presence of the King you want everyone to know it, and you want it published in three worlds. You would be glad for all the galleries of Heaven to know it, and you would be willing to have it shouted through all the corridors of hell, and you see to it yourself that the earth knows it. \par Again, the holy place is a place of friendship. In order to stand in the immediate presence of the king, you must be his friend. You must be on intimate terms with him. You might gain admittance into his presence possibly, through the influence of another, but you could not stay unless you had business there. You would have to relate your matter and be gone. If you could succeed in getting an interview with McKinley, you could not stay. Of course, if you are the President's friend, you might stay overnight. If you should chance to be his son, you could live with him; but it takes intimate terms to assure one the privilege of staying in the presence of great men, and it takes intimate relations to insure us the privilege of standing, as the text says, in the holy place. We must be on intimate terms with God. We must be even more than friends; we must be of kin to Him. \par If we have royal blood in our veins, we can sit at the King's table, we can sit in the council chamber of kings. We can have the privileges of the palace, the privileges of the White House from cellar to garret, if we are sons. If we are merely guests, of course we must stay where a guest stays. If we are servants, we must stay in the kitchen or where servants belong, but if we are heirs, children, then we have the privileges of the whole house. You know a guest does not always feel free in a palatial home. I have stayed in homes where everything was so elegant that I felt as if I had swallowed a yardstick, and I wished I could get out; but there is a home in which I feel perfectly easy, my own home -- and when you come into this place you get into your own home. \par But, beloved, do you know that to be a friend of God you must be an enemy of this world? Do you know that to be on intimate terms with the King you must break with other folks? Do you know that in order to have the undivided affection of your Bridegroom you must stop flirting with this world, you must give up casting glances at other friends, and give yourself entirely to the King of Heaven and earth? We can not be on intimate terms with God while we are trying to hold this world in one hand and God in the other. \par So you have to break with this world, with worldly institutions, Christless lodges and secret fraternities. You can not live with the King and be hooked up with anybody else. I am positive of it. We have God's word for it, and it is settled forever in heaven that to be on intimate terms with Him we must deny ourselves and give up all that this world calls great and good, and take the lowly way with Jesus. We presume that is the reason that very many people fail to go in. We see those at the altar who weep for a time and seem tender under the conviction of the Spirit, but "bring up " against some obstacle, dry their tears and retire without the blessing. They come to something they must break with if they go with the King, and they choose to hug the things of this world and turn from the King of Heaven. \par Beloved, I choose to break with the things of this world and cleave to things that are eternal. I choose to let go of everything here and choose things that will live forever more. I deliberately loosen my hold upon dignitaries and upon honors of the world and church, and welcome any reproach that may come to me by taking the narrow way, for I am determined to go through to the skies with the despised and lowly Nazarene. Just as Moses loosened his grasp on popularity and royalty in order that he might take hold upon the skies, so I loosen my hold upon the things I was hugging down here that I might open my arms to heaven and all that heaven means. \par Again, the holy place is a place of safety. When you are in favor with the king, you have the protection of the king's bodyguard. When you are on intimate terms with the king you are as safe as he is. As long as you have his favor and his smile, every man and every gun that guards him guards you, and you are perfectly safe. \par There are those who tell us that holiness is dangerous, and that to get sanctified wholly is very risky business. There are preachers with tall hats and white ties and lots of buttons on their coats, who tell us that "If you get so high up you may fall, and then the fall would be awful," but they fail to comprehend the philosophy of this thing. They do not understand that holiness is not getting up high at all. It is getting down on your face, and when a man is down and stays down, how can he fall? The most he can do is to roll over. The fact is that when people get sanctified wholly, they come into an experience of such security and safety and divine protection as they never had before. The safest men and women that walk this earth are those who are free from sin, who have had the last keg of gun powder removed from the basements of their souls. Every one knows it is dangerous to keep gun powder in your cellar. It might stay there a whole year and do no harm, but some day it might explode and your house would go into a million pieces. The best thing for you to do is to get the powder out of your cellar. If you would be well insured you must remove all such things. It is when we get sanctified wholly that we get delivered from that explosive element that gives us so much trouble. A man is never quite trusty -- I never fully trust a man until his soul has been cleaned out and delivered from all the devil's dynamite and filled with the Holy Ghost. \par You sometimes feel when you pay your taxes that they are a little high; you can hardly seethe necessity of paying out so much money to keep up the running affairs of the government; but if you were traveling abroad you would appreciate the strength of this government. If you were on foreign soil you would have the protection of this country. Wherever the stars and stripes float you are perfectly safe so long as you behave yourself, simply because you are a citizen of this country. When you get your citizenship in Heaven every man on sea or land and every battleship that our Christ can command and all the artillery of the skies are at your back, and if hell was to turn out in full force against you, God would empty Heaven, if necessary, to take care of you, for you are a subject of the King of Heaven! \par This is a place of safety. If you desire to be safe make friends with the King. Some years ago an English sailor of American birth was hastily tried by Spanish authorities and condemned to death. The American consul said that the hasty trial was not sufficient, and, conferring with the English consul, they agreed that the man ought to have a new hearing. The Spanish authorities refused to grant the new trial, and the man was brought out to be shot. Just as the twelve men were put in line ready to shoot, the American consul stepped up and threw over him "the Stars and Stripes" and the English consul came forward and wrapped "the Union Jack" around him and said, "Fire if you dare." The guns fell from their shoulders and the man had a new trial. Nothing but strips of silk, but behind them were two of the strongest nations of the earth. \par When you are wrapped in the bloodstained banner of Christ, you are safe, for there are some things at which the devil himself does not fire. He has fought at the cross, at the wide open tomb. He was a conquered foe in the garden, on the cross and at the open grave, and all you have got to do is to refer him to the resurrection morning and he hides his head in everlasting shame. If we are under the blood stained banner of Jesus all the galleries of Heaven pledged to take care of us, and all the artillery of the skies will help us; we are perfectly safe as long as God is safe. This sounds to some folks like heresy, but it is not. It is the power of divine grace; we sit sheltered in the cleft of that rock which was opened for us, and while we abide in this cleft, there is no devil that can damage us, for we have the support and immediate protection of our King. \par Again, beloved, the holy place is a place of power. When you are in favor with the king you are in a place of influence. When Queen Esther stood in favor with the king she accomplished something. It looked like a perilous undertaking to go into the court room, but she said, "If I perish, I perish," and she appeared before the king, and when he saw her and she found favor in his eyes, he extended to her the golden scepter. That was the scepter that ruled the kingdom; and when she drew nigh and touched the end of that scepter, she touched the power of the throne, and her people were free. Why? Because she was in favor with the king and was in a place of power. \par When Joseph had influence with the king of Egypt, he stood at the elbow of a man who ruled the world, and his word was authority throughout the whole empire. Why? Because he was in a place of power. It was not what Joseph was; just a short time before he was in a pit, later he was in a jail. It was not what he was, but where he was, and it does not make any difference what we are or where we come from, whether we come from the slums or from Fifth Ave., if we get saved and sanctified wholly, we are in a place of power, where we can press a button and turn on the powers of the skies and accomplish tremendous things. \par When we stand before the King we can pray fire enough out of the skies to put our friends under conviction. You might preach at them and scold them and nag them for ten years because they do not go to church, and they would not be saved, but when you get into a place of power you can turn on power enough in five minutes to put them under conviction. \par Again, the holy place is a place of exhaustless resources. When you are in favor with the King you can have all you want as long as you want it. It will not give out, for He is able to make all grace abound that "always having all sufficiency in all things" we may abound in every good work. Now, we have accepted this theoretically; we have been singing, "I am a child of a King," but we have made the mistake of living as if our Father was a beggar! It is one thing to sing, "I am a child of a King," and it is another thing to talk and act and live as though you possessed all things! When we get into the holy place we possess all things. We are not elevators, we are not storehouses, we are not reservoirs, but we are pipes and channels through which God pours the rivers of salvation to water the famished millions of earth. We just open the faucets and God pours His blessings through us. All my life we have had to study economy. We never knew what it was to have overmuch of this world's goods, and so to us who have had to count our nickels and see how far a dime will go, it is a great luxury to find something there is enough of. Oh, you will not misunderstand me. We feel elated, because we have reached a place where things never give out; we never strike the bottom of the flour barrel; we never have bills to meet that we can not pay, for we have a rich Father who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. There is no lack to the man or woman who walks humbly with God. \par I have sympathy for that little girl, who was brought up in an attic and had never seen much of anything; when she was taken to the seaside and asked what she thought of the ocean, she said she was "glad to see something there was enough of!" I am thankful I have tapped a reservoir so great that we can give people all they will take and have some left; all that we servants can use or give away! You may be a pauper if you wish, but I do not propose to be one. I propose to be a millionaire, and have all the servants and footmen and coaches and everything of that kind that I want. \par You can go afoot, but I propose to ride in a chariot. The Bible teaches me that Philistines can be converted into chariots, and as long as I have as many enemies a s I have now I will never have to go afoot or "ride a wheel"! You and I never have to be poor! Never have to tell in class meetings how weak we are! We do not have to tell what a hard time we have had and how many crosses and losses and ups and downs we have had. All we have to do is talk about the King, tell what He has done; and we will have enough to do. Hallelujah! \par Now let us look for a few minutes at the conditions upon which we gain admittance into this holy place. It is a place of honor, a place of friendship, a place of safety, a place of power and a place of exhaustless resources, but you can not enter unless you have a ticket! As sure as they have twelve gates to heaven and twelve angels to guard them, this holy place is protected by a flaming sword and cherubim, and you can not enter unless you have met the conditions mentioned here. \par The first condition mentioned is "clean hands." If our hands are not clean of the blood of all men, if they are not free from bribery!, if they are not free from other people's property, we can not go in. There are lots of people who steal who do not take money. They just take a corner off a man's reputation and refuse to bring it back. "Clean hands" means a strictly clean, upright, downright, Christlike nature, on the inside and outside; an everyday walk before God and before men that is above suspicion and without reproach. It was that kind of a walk and that kind of a life that the seven deacons of the early Church had. They were of honest report; were full of faith and of the Holy Ghost; they had "clean hands." Their outward life was right. \par If your outward life is not all right, you can make it right. You may say there are some wrongs that can never be undone, you may say that you can never make your hands clean, but I say you can. When you have made everything right that you can make right, you have done as much as you can do, and God never requires any more of a man than he can do. When a man does all he can to make his outward life right, he has "clean hands." And another condition to which I want to call your attention is that we must have pure hearts Now, the Holy Ghost would never suggest that this was a condition of admittance into the holy place if it was not possible for us to have pure hearts. God does not mock us by offering us something unto which we can not attain; and when He offers us a clean heart and makes us hungry for it, He not only makes it possible for us to have it, but puts it in easy reach at the very threshold of our souls. \par Any one here tonight can have clean hands and a pure heart and enter into the holy place. Those who enter, enter under these conditions, and those who are not in will never get in until they meet these conditions until they have washed their hands and had their hearts purified through the blood of Jesus Christ. How many of us are in the holy place tonight? Preached at Cincinnati, O., Nov. 29, 1898 \cf2\lang3082 \cf0 \par \cf2\lang2058\par } 33u/K14 The Holy Place{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 The Holy Place \b0 \par \fs22 "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully" (\cf1\ul Psa_24:3-4\cf0\ulnone ). \par This twenty-fourth Psalm was doubtless composed for and used upon that eventful occasion when the ark of God was returned from the house of Obededom to its proper place on Mt. Zion. The ark had been in the hands of its enemies, but to them it was a great curse. In the house of Obededom, its friend, it was a great blessing. But the time had come when the ark ought to be restored to the place of public worship, and the worship of the liv$ks and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and asses. And Sarah, my master's wife, bare a son to my master when she was old: and unto him hath he given all that he hath" (\cf1\ul Gen_24:34-36\cf0\ulnone ). \par These are the words of Abraham's chief servant "that ruled over all that he had." He had been dispatched on a most delicate and important errand, viz., the selection of a wife for Abraham's only son, Isaac. The whole incident is very instructive and interesting, and in a most striking manner illustrates or symbolizes the calling of the New Testament Church by the Holy Ghost to be the bride of Isaac's great antitype, Jesus Christ, God's only Son. It is pertinent that we notice here that it is not by accident that the events of chapters xxii., xxiii. and xxiv. come as they do. \par 1. Isaac is sacrificed and received back from the dead. \par 2. Sarah the mother of Isaac is buried. \par 3. Abraham's servant is s%ent away to procure a wife for Isaac, the Isaac who had been brought back from death. \par The counterpart of this type is to be seen in the New Testament. Most prominent and conspicuous of all events in the New Testament is the death of God's only Son, the sacrifice of the second Isaac. Then comes the burial of Judaism, the laying away of the rejected Jews. Third, the Holy Ghost comes, selects, and calls out from the world the church, "the bride, the Lamb's wife. "Types are didactic in their aim, for "whatsoever things" that "were written aforetime were written for our learning." \par The oath between Abraham and his servant had for its object the obtainment of an help-meet for Isaac, and correspondingly, far back beyond the bounds of time in the council chamber of the Almighty Trinity, the covenant of grace was instituted. The oath must be ratified, but there was none greater by whom God could swear, so He sware by Himself. His oath had for its object not only the redemption of the wor&ld, but the entire sanctification of the church that she might become "the bride," the Lamb's wife ; so our entire sanctification rests on God's eternal oath. Thank God, our full salvation was not an afterthought with Him. \par Let us notice next the testimony of Abraham's servant. He had a very distinct and definite testimony to give. He symbolizes not only the Holy Spirit, but Spirit-filled and Spirit-empowered disciples. These were the man's words "I am Abraham's servant." When we are filled with the Holy Ghost we will have a clear and distinct testimony. The man knew that he was Abraham's servant. He did not guess or hope or suppose, he knew, for he said: "I am." He could never have succeeded with Rebekah if he had been uncertain as to who he was or from whence he came; and Christians need not hope to win others to Christ if they do not know positively that they are Christ's. \par When we receive the Holy Ghost He so emphasizes and clears up justification and Calvary, that if we had 'any doubts about our conversion we lose them forever. Many have never been able to locate the time of their conversion until they experienced their Pentecost, when, under the illumination of the Spirit, they saw clearly where and when they were converted. \par We must have a distinct, positive testimony. And just as the ancient Jew must be able to declare his pedigree before he could take a place in the ranks of the army, so those who do not know that they are saved are not trusted to take a place in the ranks of God's tried and conquering hosts. But mark; as soon as Eleazer, the servant, has given a straightforward testimony as to who his master is he says no more about himself, but at once sets about to represent and reveal the father and the son. "He shall not speak of himself." He speaks of the resources of the father: "The Lord hath blessed my master greatly, and he is become great, and he hath given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold," etc. \par Beloved, we may never expect (much success until we properly represent our Master. He is a great God. Possessing measureless, boundless wealth, he owns the cattle on a thousand fields and a universe of whirling worlds. How many misrepresent God! The world surely thinks we have a very diminutive God. \par Many professed Christians do not know that their God has ever done much for them. Their lives suggest that He is not able to give them perfect victory or save them from all sin. Their spiritual constitution disgraces the God they profess to worship. Who would ever suppose that these skin-and-bone individuals who reel and stagger about, making "crooked paths" and going into "by and forbidden ways" were children of a King? Can it be that these emaciated forms ever sat at a King's table? What a burlesque on salvation! What a slander on the skies! \par When the servant has made it clear to Rebekah that his master is wealthy and very great, "he tells her that his master has an only son, and that he is now on the mission o)f securing for him a wife. Rebekah is attracted toward the heir of whom Eleazer speaks in such glowing terms. "When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." "He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you." \par By revealing the resources of God in their magnitude, and by exemplifying the supreme loveliness of the character of Christ, men are won to grace and salvation. The servant showed Rebekah a fair desirable object in the distance and set before her the blessedness of being united with that object. All that belonged to Isaac would belong to Rebekah also when she became his wife. We have in the deportment of Eleazer an excellent touchstone by which to test the propriety of our ministry. The most spiritual teaching fully and constantly presents Christ as able to save to the uttermost. In such teaching there is small room for human theories and reasonings. A *man who wishes to preach himself does very well to deal in these toys, but the Holy Ghost preacher points to Jesus. \par The result of Eleazer's quest was most pronounced and decisive. The words of the servant had won her heart to Isaac. She was ready to go off into a strange land away from kindred and home to find the Isaac of the servant's report. \par In the jewels of silver and gold and in the raiment, Rebekah saw an earnest of her approaching fortune. Her old habit would not do; she must don the purple of nobility in order to meet her bridegroom. The yielding sinner gets rid of his rags, is clothed, and put in his right mind, and gets a sample of heaven's wealth. Rebekah was now really betrothed to Isaac, and must assume garments worthy of her honor. She must not only consent to be Isaac's bride, but she must practically and really consecrate herself and all she had to that end. \par "And Eleazer said, Send me away to my master." But the "old man," the father, and those to +whom Rebekah was bound by earthly ties, objected. "Let her remain with us a few days at least." Here is the crucial point. A test is to be made. What will Rebekah do? Is she so in love with Isaac as to entirely detach her heart's affections from things around her? Will she turn her back upon the homestead, forsake father and mother, brother and sister, houses and lands, and go forth to Isaac? If what she has heard is true, attachment to these things is worse than folly. If she could really become the joint-heir of Isaac in his life and possessions, what foolishness to still tend Laban's sheep? It would be to despise all that was set before her. The prospect is far too bright to be thus lightly given up. Hence Rebekah unhesitatingly arises and expresses her readiness to depart in those simple yet wonderful words, "I will go." "Forgetting the things which were behind and reaching forth toward the things which were before, she pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling." \par Every true convert is speedily brought to the question of practical consecration and true holiness. Here the natural man and earthly ties always remonstrate and insist that the separation be delayed at least for a time. Few there are who walk in the light of justification many weeks or months without being brought face to face with the question of holiness, a full, complete separation from the "natural man,'' the ''carnal mind,'' and all worldly entanglements. With those who say, "I will go," the Holy Ghost will journey all the way, and ''in the evening" of "this age," perhaps (who knows?) in the evening of this century, perhaps this evening, Christ, of whom the Paraclete has talked to us so much, will walk out as did Isaac, lift up His yes and behold His bride coming in the clouds of Heaven to meet Him. He will take her on His strong arm, conduct her into His banqueting hall, and seat her at he royal table. "So shall we be ever with the Lord." Hallelujah! \cf2\lang3082 \cf0 \par \pard\cf2\lang2058\par } FTF*='16 Blessings in Disguise{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 Bles-9Y15 The Call of Rebekah{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab708{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb120\sa120\lang1023\b\f0\fs32 The Call of Rebekah \b0 \par \fs22 "And he said, I am Abraham's servant. And the Lord hath blessed my master greatly; and he is become great: and he hath given him floc#.sings in Disguise\par \pard\sb120\sa120\b0\fs22 "Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place." (\cf1\ul Psa_66:12\cf0\ulnone ). \par The margin reads "a moist place," which means ''a fertile place.'' The great primary truth set forth in this text is the service of difficulty in the Christian experience. It is a fact in the history of nations that adverse circumstances have always been favorable to national prosperity. The inhabitants of a northern country have always had the ascendancy over those of the southern and more tropical lands. The inhospitable climate and sterile soil and adverse conditions have demanded energy and rugged strength. \par It was opposition and oppression that forced our fathers to the Revolution and into heroism, and ultimately into independence. Israel gained more by Pharaoh's oppression than she lost. The more she was oppressed the more she multiplied and grew. It has been/ in the times of great political and social upheaval that the strongest men have been developed. Such men as General Washington, Abraham Lincoln, General Grant, Robert E. Lee and a host of others would never have come to the front in times of peace; but in the nation's greatest struggles they shone forth. There are millions of people who would never have heard of Hobson or of Dewey had it not been for the recent struggle between this country and Spain. There is something about opposition and difficulty that wakes up the strongest qualities of the soul and brings forth activity the best men to be had. The illustrious characters of the Bible were all educated in the school of difficulty. Abraham was never called "the Father of the faithful" until that awful tragedy on Mount Moriah. Jacob rode to his highest achievements in the chariot of severe discipline. Joseph's path to the throne lay through Egypt's prison cell. David's way to the throne was through the valley of nine years' persecution and oppression. 0He knew what it was to be a king and at the same time to have to wait for his crown. Paul preached in Caesar's household with iron on his limbs, and John Bunyan did his best work in Bedford jail. The most illustrious men of the ages have blazed forth when earth and hell were pitted against them. The darkest hours that the church has ever seen have been the times when she has won some of her most tremendous victories. \par This is not only true of the church as a whole, but it is also true of individuals; oppression and opposition and poverty have forced many a life into moral honor and spiritual greatness. Thousands of men are stalwart for God, and will shine like particular stars in the firmament of history, who would have been of no account and would have been worthless but for the force of circumstances, which has forced them out of a place of ease, out of a place of comfort, into great struggle and tremendous conflict; and the greater the conflict, the greater the victory. We can never have a g1reat victory unless we have an engagement. There are thousands of people who seem to want victory, but who dread the conflict necessary to obtain it. Those who shrink from trial, from temptation, from difficulty and from testing, fail to understand that it is impossible for us to have a grand triumph over a foe unless there is a foe to contend with -- unless there is a battle to be fought. If we want to know the triumph of the ages, we have got to be willing to engage in a hand-to-hand conflict with the powers of darkness, that God may have a chance to display His power in making us victorious over the world, the flesh, the devil; over death, hell and the grave. \par What is the service of difficulty? What is the benefit of trial and temptation? Most of people dread them. People look upon severe temptation and on testing as calamities. For what purpose do these things come to us? First, we want to say that they prove our real value. God never tries or tests a worthless soul; and so, if we are sever2ely tested, it is because we are worth it. The devil never tempts a man who is already his; so, if the devil tempts people severely it is because they have been delivered from his clutches and he wants to get them back. Isaiah says the tares are not threshed like grain and wheat. Why not? They are not worth it. Grain and wheat are worth threshing, but the tares are not. And if you and I get a threshing once in a while, it is because God thinks we are worth it, and He wants to get the chaff out of the wheat. If you find that other people are in comparative ease and comfort, while you yourself are having a severe time, just conclude that possibly they are not worth testing, but that God has seen something in you that can be brought out by a trial of that kind; that can be developed, that can be shaped, as the diamond whose beauty is only brought out by shaping and cutting and polishing. If the devil is after us it is because he has not got us. So when we hear his hoofs and horns rattling, instead of 3looking down over our noses and having the dumps, we should thank God that he has not got us. He is not after folks that he has; he is rocking them to sleep in the cradle of carnal security. He is dosing out opiates to put them to sleep and numb their consciences, so they will not get stirred up and be converted. The folks that he is after with a whole brigade of his emissaries are the people that have been saved and rescued from his clutches, and he wants to recapture them. \par So trial proves what we are worth -- shows what we are made of -- for the way we act in time of trial and under opposition and in severe tests proves what we can stand. If we are all right under this high pressure, we will be all right when things run smoothly; but, sir, we might be all right when things run smoothly, and not be all right in the teeth of a northeaster. God sometimes sends a northeaster to let us know the strength of our cable. He sometimes rocks us in the storm to let us find out that the old ship of Zion 4is seaworthy. He sometimes sends the enemy after us with all his powers, that we may understand and know that we have something we can put our feet down on and feel secure. This gives us courage, it gives us strength of conviction, it gives us boldness and heroism of spirit that will dare death in its most frightful forms and push out into the battlefield for God. \par Again, opposition, difficulty and trial are valuable because they wake up the slumbering faculties of our souls and bring out the very best there is in us. If we have latent powers, if we have qualities that have never been developed, we ought to want them brought out, and it would seem from the course that God has pursued with His people that oppression is one of His incentives to faith and holy activity. God lets opposition come to wake up the best there is in us and bring into full activity the strongest qualities of the man. It was the weights on father's old clock that kept it going. It may be the weights and burdens and difficu5lties that keep us going. God can set our sails so that we can sail in the very teeth of the gale. Our sails fill with an opposing wind, and we set our prow across the waves and we plow through to victory in the face of the strongest opposition. \par Two men meet a difficulty. One says, "This mountain came to stop my way," and he succumbs. The other says, "This mountain came that I might climb it," and he mounts to the top and looks away into the land that is afar off. God means that everything that opposes us should be converted into a steppingstone; that we should mount our difficulties and ride; and if, when opposition comes, you will get into the chariot and settle back into the soft cushions and behave yourself, then, when the footman opens the door to let you out, you will find yourself on an elevated spot, having outgrown your clothes! But if you get down under the wheels of the chariot, they will mangle and bruise you, and you will come out defeated. \par Beloved, let us ride. Let us6 mount everything that opposes us. Let us take it for granted that everything that God permits to come to us, comes to us that we may mount from its summit to the summit of something else and go on to victory. The ancient Parthians believed that the strength of every foe they slew went directly into themselves. So let us take from conquered difficulties the strength they sought to take from us, and turn it to our account so that we may be made giants instead of pigmies. \par We should never yield. We should never suffer even temporary defeat. We should be victorious from this moment until the clouds part and Jesus comes. God has placed within our easy grasp all the conditions of perpetual triumph, and we may be victors every single moment, whether in the kitchen or in the parlor, whether in the slums or in high life. We may have victories for God everywhere, if we will only trust Him and appropriate the resources placed at our disposal. We need never be ashamed, never confused, never confounded. "T7hey that trust in the Lord shall never be confounded." Hallelujah! Again, beloved, our enemies and our difficulties and our opposition are intended to be servants. The giants of Canaan were to be bread for Israel; and if God has a process by which he can convert giants into bread, He has power by which He can convert all our enemies and all our oppositions and all our difficulties into friends that will help us. The prophet said that Israel should return from bondage to their homes "on the shoulders of the Philistines.'' The Philistines were their enemies; and if the Israelites were to convert Philistines into saddle horses and ride them back home, we ought to be able to ride our difficulties and our oppositions, and make servants of everything that confronts us, capturing even the devil, and making him forge the weapons of his destruction, and causing his thunderbolts to fall back upon his own head, giving him to understand that through Jesus Christ we conquer the world, the flesh and the devil. 8 \par We ought to stand on our own caskets and flap our wings in victory, and give Satan to understand that we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ. Oh, this cowardice! Oh, this cringing! Oh, this leaning and propping! Oh, this whiny, delicate type of Christianity! God have mercy on us! The demand today is not for babies, but for soldiers; not for cowards, but for heroes; not for people in the hospital -- we have enough of those -- but for men who are willing to go to the front. God in heaven send us some men with boiling blood in their veins, who will never be satisfied until they go to the front and do their best for God! \par Some of us have never had servants, but we can convert our enemies into servants. We are not able to have hired servants, but we are able to convert giants into hot biscuits, and feed on the very folks that mean to damage us. The men that have designed the most malicious things against me have been the men that have been the greatest blessing to me. Some of my9 greatest enemies have been my greatest benefactors, and people have blessed me and helped me when they did not intend it. Afterwards they would have liked to have taken it back if they could. \par We should understand that our enemies are for us, for "if God be for us who can be against us?" if God is for us, every one is for us, and everything is for us, and "all thing work together for good to them that love the Lord," and "this light affliction worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen." May God get our eyes off the visible and let us see the things that are out of sight. Let us see the King in His beauty and the country that is very far off. \par Then we will have a good time when other folks are having a bad time, and when you get to this place you will feel almost under obligation to the man who kicks you. I have been kicked sometimes, and have turned around and said, "Thank you.": The man has so blessed me. How could I help it? I am under obligations to every one that helps me, and when a man gets sanctified wholly and filled with the Holy Ghost, people may kick him, and it does not affect him any more than it does a football. Of course, it takes a ball a second to adjust itself, and when a sanctified man gets kicked he feels it. We do not preach a sanctification which takes the feeling out of folks, but it takes him but a second to adjust himself, and he is ready for the next fellow. The people that are well saved can be kicked and cuffed and abused, and they are always at their best, for every kick and cuff only develops something better in them, and fits them for a better place. \par God save us from this dread of a little persecution. We have a type of Christianity that is too weak and delicate for anything useful. It is too sickly for the war. It is too feminine for the open field. It is too nervous and whiny and too hard to please, and requires too much attention and ;too much apology and too much excuse to do anything for God. I can go into some places in the Holiness movement, and there is not one in ten of the Holiness people that are ready for the fight and are just prancing for the war. The most of people sigh a sigh of relief when they think the war is over; but God has put something into me that demands a conflict, and if I could not live where there is war I would do something to bring one on. I would have war if I had to do something to provoke it. I see more and more that stagnation and damnation are characteristic of the people that are at ease in Zion. God help us and save us from this type of Christianity, and give us something that can stand the stress of real war. Difficulty and opposition not only have the effect of proving what we are worth and developing the best there is in us to serve us in our work for God, but they drive us to appropriate divine resources. It is when I get into a close place that I make a heavy draft on heaven's bank. It is when I< am crowded to the wall that I write my name to a check for half a million and stick my face into heaven's window and stay there until the Cashier gives me attention. It is when I am "pressed above measure," as Paul says, that I make my heaviest draft on heaven's resources. There is nothing that pleases God more than for us to draw heavily. It proves that we have confidence in Him as the President of the whole business. We have confidence in the exhaustless resources of the Kingdom, and we are not afraid that things are going to give out up there, and so we just draw heavily. \par I have been forced to make out some drafts in the last few months that I never dreamed of having to make out, but I am here to confess to you tonight that I have never yet made a demand on heaven's bank that it was not promptly responded to. God's storehouses are just lying there, ready to be tapped by the man of faith. The man who will dare to believe God will leap from a beggar and poverty to a millionaire, and by a sing=le stroke of his pen of faith appropriate enough of the eternal wealth to put him among the aristocracy of the skies. I would rather belong to heaven's nobility than to belong to Boston's four hundred. I would rather be one of the elect of the upper skies than to have all this world can offer. \par We have a salvation that is so tremendous and so magnificent and so extensive that no man has ever yet taxed it; and if the whole earth should apply at once, there would be enough for every angel and archangel in the skies. God wake us up. If He has to get us out of our present condition to get us into something better, I say, "Amen." When the mother eagle wants to teach the eaglets to fly, she stirs up the nest. She frequently picks the cotton out of it and leaves the thorns; and sometimes that does not do, and some great, lazy young bird wants to stay in the nest. After she has gotten out on the limb and set an example and exhorted them and entreated them to attempt to fly, it is not uncommon for her to> tear the nest up and make that young fellow do something. Of course she has the mother heart in her, and when the young eaglet starts to fly and falls, she always spreads her wings beneath it. \par The mother eagle stirs up the nest and picks out the cotton in mercy. She knows that if the birdlings were allowed to stay in the nest, they would become good for nothing, and their wings would be useless. We have in the church a great lot of folks who are sitting in the nest. They are thoroughly paralyzed, and mostly head and stomach; they can never fly until God sends something to stir up the nest. Many a time the very thing you dreaded most was God stirring up your nest so as to get you over here in a better place. When I feel things stirring nowadays, I have learned to take courage and thank God that there is something better for me. \par We read in God's Word that when David was made king the Philistines came up against him. They did not come up against him before he was made king. Why? Becaus?e he was not worth it; but as soon as he was made king they were after him. When we hear the Philistines thundering and tramping and howling about us -- why do we not suppose that they have overheard that we are about to be promoted? Why do we not look on the favorable side of things, and think that God is about to move us into a better place, a moist place, a fertile place, where things never get dry? I think it would be a great blessing to us to get into a place where things never get dry. I have been into so many dry churches that I shall be glad enough to get into a moist place. I have had to pray fire out of heaven to wake up many cold churches lately. I am praying God to give us a revival of full salvation, a full salvation which causes people to shed tears. I am praying God to give us tears over the fact that churches are going backwards and that sinners are going to hell in regiments. If people are going to hell as you and I believe they are, then we ought to say something about it, and I am@ following sinners to the very flaming gates of hell and protesting against their entrance. God is gaining souls brought back from the flaming gates and planting them in the army of God. \par The possibilities are simply tremendous if we will only enter in and stand true to God instead of being cowards and whining and simpering. When men get sanctified wholly by the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, they get an experience that lifts them out of the rut and moves them out of the repair shop; that puts them out on the line, with motive power enough to run them through a whole regiment of devils. Men who do not have this power have not this experience. I want to say to you that people who really have the glorious experience we are talking about are men who are not afraid of earth or hell. The are not afraid of ten thousand devils. \par The Holiness men of this country can not be stopped. They are dying all around because they would rather die than be idle; they would rather preach than do notAhing. They would rather suffer with the Son of God than to have an easy time in this world. They would rather share the reproach that comes than to have all this world can offer. People who are having easy times in these sinful days will have a hard time in the judgment. If they are sitting in idle content while this world is going down to hell, they will be filled with dismay on that day. I will take my hard time now, if you please. Let me wear out now. Let me go and serve God while I am able; let me preach when I have a raging headache, but do not let me ever sit down in ease; do not let me ever get in sympathy with myself; do not let me ever get to pitying myself; do not let me ever conclude that I am having a hard time; do not let me ever ask to go to the rear. I am asking God to send me to the front and keep me there. Beloved, if we knew what a victory there is, what a triumph there is, what a glorious overcoming there is for God's people, we would all want to go to the front. \par Thomas, of Bthe Rough Riders, who fought in the battles of the late war in Cuba, lay on a blanket mortally wounded. His comrades took hold of the blanket and undertook to move him over into the shade, and he rose up and said, "You are carrying me to the front, aren't you? Carry me to the front. They have killed my captain; carry me to the front!" and they carried him over the stones and through the briars, leaving a streak of blood as they went, and he shouted, "For the front!" until he fainted dead away. \par I said, when I read that in "Scribner's Magazine," that if a Rough Rider can do that for his country, it is time Christians forget their pains and their trials; it is time we stop our self-pity; it is time we forget our oppressions and cry, "For the front!" and trample our enemies in the dust and plant the blood stained banner of the Son of God at the summit of the enemies' earthworks. I modestly believe that God has taken the last drop of cowardly blood out of me, and, if I knew there was a drop in me, CI would open the vein and let it out. This everlasting cringing and whining and toadying and catering to men, and catering to churches, and catering to pastors, and catering to elders and bishops, and catering to moneyed men and tall hats and white cravats! God have mercy on us. The time will come, sir, when we would give more for a smile from the Son of God than we would for all the applause that either the church or the world can heap upon us. \par "Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy, a moist place." I want to notice, in conclusion, that the two elements mentioned in my text are the two most fearful and destructive elements in nature \endash fire and water -- and if God can take a man through fire and through flood, He is able to keep us anywhere this side the gates of hell. We can dare trust Him, no difference what comes. Fire and flood will only have the effect of bringing us into a moist place where we shall enjoy more than ever before. \par But we can never know this experience unless we are sanctified wholly by the baptism with the Holy Ghost, for only this delivers us from carnality and brings us into perfect loyalty to Almighty God. Therefore, we will have to seek and find this second blessing, this Pentecost, this baptism with the Holy Ghost if we want to be Christians after the type that we have talked about tonight. I believe there are scores of people in this audience tonight who do not want to be cowards and who would like to be delivered from the last symptom of cowardice, who would like to be "soldiers of the cross and followers of the Lamb," and stalwarts who are ready to live or die for the Son of God. Every one of us may be the same if we will receive this blessed baptism. How many are there here tonight who are ready to walk with "the resolute few who dare to go through" at all costs? Preached at Cincinnati, O., November 30, 1898\par \par THE END\par \cf2\lang3082\par }